its successor, the United Communist Party of America. Following unification of the CPA with this group, Ballam emerged as the leading English-speaking figure of a dissident left opposition group which split from the CPA late in 1921 over the issue of the forced participation of ostensibly underground party members in a "legal political party." Ballam was chosen to make the trip to Moscow on behalf of his comrades in an attempt to gain recognition for the underground Communist Party dissidents and their "legal" wing, the United Toilers, as the Communist International's official representatives in America. Early in 1922 the Comintern ruled against the Central Caucus's parallel "Communist Party of America," ordering its members to reunite with the regular party organization and to turn over all of its "records, addresses, connections, and properties" to the main organization within 60 days. Ballam agreed to this demand of the Comintern and returned to the regular CPA, which elected him a delegate to the party's ill-fated 1922 Bridgman Convention, held in August. Although he escaped arrest at the time of the raid, Ballam was among 9 of those who surrendered to authorities on March 10, 1923. He was released on a $1,000 bond but was never brought to trial on charges of having violated the Michigan anti-syndicalist law through his participation in the gathering. In August 1923 Ballam was chosen as the campaign manager for the Workers Party of America's (successor to the underground CPA) effort to raise $100,000 to establish a daily newspaper in America. During the bitter factional warfare of the 1920s, Ballam was a consistent supporter of the Communist Party faction headed by John Pepper, C.E. Ruthenberg, and Jay Lovestone. Ballam worked as the Workers Party of America's district organizer for Buffalo and upstate New York state in 1924.<ref>[http://www.marxisthistory.org/history/usa/parties/cpusa/1924/0414-ballam-toruthorgcom.pdf "Letter to C.E. Ruthenberg and the WPA Organization Committee in Chicago from John J. Ballam, DO4 (Buffalo), April 14, 1924.] Corvallis, OR: 1000 Flowers Publishing, 2007.</ref> Political campaigns Ballam was the candidate of the Workers Party for Governor of Massachusetts in 1924. He ran for United States Senator from Massachusetts in 1926 and again in 1928. In 1931 Ballam ran for Governor of New Jersey as the candidate of the Communist Party USA. The next year he ran for Governor of Massachusetts, heading the party's ticket in that state. Ballam's final run for political office came in 1940, when he ran for