As for buchanan, he started that first campaign (the second was a money grab farce) in the double digits nationally and a whole lot higher here on FR. When he left the GOP his numbers started dropping nationally but he remained strong here. It was only when his campaign progress through one bizarre thing after another that his national ratings hit bottom and most of his supporters on FR had enough.
Not that oddly, you'll see some of his few remaining supporters and some Keysters names popping up a lot lately.
Buchanan's first run was in 1996. According to Jim Robinson, this site was started with only a handful of posters in early 1997.