Rocky Anderson accepts his newly-formed party's presidential nomination

SALT LAKE CITY — The political party Rocky Anderson formed now officially has a candidate for president: Rocky Anderson.

Undeterred by his chances of winning, the former Salt Lake City mayor accepted the nomination Friday, attacking the two-party system and calling for voters to consider his run as a member of the Justice Party.

“This is not my campaign,” Anderson said during his remarks at the University of Utah. “This is a campaign of, for and by the people. We join together in this endeavor for the sake of justice — social justice, environmental justice and economic justice.”

Twenty minutes before, the auditorium was a classroom for an intro to children’s literature class for approximately 30 students. The crowd more than doubled before Anderson took the stage.

“I’m a very good friend of Rocky’s,” said Jerry Floor, a musician who co-founded the Salt Lake City Jazz Fest with Anderson. “I don’t know much about (his campaign). He’s been a good friend and he called and invited me.”

Campaign staffers did their best to transform the auditorium into a setting worthy of a presidential political rally. A campaign banner was hung across the white board on stage, and a pixilated image of the Justice Party logo was printed out on a paper attached to the front of the podium.

The audience featured a large number of young people, some, perhaps, enticed by the free pizza. A group of four students from China said they came interested in hearing a presidential candidate and they hoped listening to his speech would be a chance to practice their English.

Anderson’s campaign manager, Ty Markham, sat on the front row, leading the audience in enthusiastic applause before he took the podium and throughout his remarks.

“He looks out for the rights of all,” she said. “He has the courage to stand up to big money.”

Anderson blasted Democrats and Republicans and urged voters to not settle for “voting for the lesser of two evils.” He touched on a wide variety of subjects, including environmental issues, corruption in the justice system and bail out of multi-national corporations.