The Hill has this article by Alexander Bolton about anti-Trump Republicans who are still interested in sponsoring an independent presidential candidate. Toward the end of the article, it quotes a leader of this group as saying that the Texas independent presidential petition deadline is vulnerable to a court challenge. Texas has a May 9 independent presidential deadline, but a June 23 deadline for independent candidate petitions for other office. No other state has an independent presidential deadline as early as May.
Ballot Access News
Edited By Richard Winger
Gary Johnson is not likely since he’s already running as the LP candidate. Ben Sasse has already said no.
A ridiculous article base solely on the fact that Ryan waffled today on supporting Trump. If Ryan doesn’t get on the Trump Train very soon, he may find himself tossed out of the speakership regardless of whether or not DJT wins.
Why would Establishment Republican donors throw serious money into setting up an ad hoc neoconservative new party just to influence the 2016 presidential election? To defeat Clinton? I don’t see how that would work demographically? This is about changing Electoral votes. To defeat Trump? Independent media expenditures could serve better.
If this is a serious effort, who is the real target? Could it be the Libertarian Party? If the LP is budding, then the neoconservatives certainly would want to nip it, if not from within with a Trojan horse candidate, then from without with a siphon candidate to keep a few hundred thousand to perhaps a million votes from disgusted Main Street Republicans glomming into the Libertarian column. The Establishment may fear a substantial number of those people won’t rebound back to the Republican Party reconstituted by the Establishment afterwards. The Libertarians could reach a critical mass and start electing state legislators and local office-holders in 2016 and 2018 and maybe even a Congressperson or two in 2020!
“The Libertarians could reach a critical mass and start electing state legislators and local office-holders in 2016 and 2018 and maybe even a Congressperson or two in 2020!”
This is the fantasy that hardcore LP disciples have been repeating for 40 years. It’s not gonna happen, particularly now that “open” borders, a foundational LP issue, has become political hemlock.
As a former Cruz supporter. Who would never vote for Trump. I am changing my Party of choice to the Constitution Party. There will be many more to follow.
Trenton- That makes perfect sense. The only problem is ballot access for the CP ticket. It won’t appear on anything close to all 50 states and DC.
Abolish the super timebomb Electoral College.
Abolish all robot party hack caucuses, primaries and conventions.
ONE election day — using all paper mail ballots.
Ballot access only using nominating petitions.
P.R. and nonpartisan App.V.
—
The clubby HACKS can have their clubby meetings at their own expense.
This is just a bunch of rich guys with too much time on their hands making noise. If this were a serious effort the candidacy would have been announced last year.
D. Frank Robinson–If I am reading this right, the idea would not be a third party (TR, John Anderson, Ross Perot). It would be an Independent Republican candidate running for that election only. Think of Eugene McCarthy in 1976. The goal would be getting enough electoral votes to deadlock the election and send it to be decided by Congress. Once there it would be a vote from anti-Trump Reps and anti Hillary Demos (there are a few of them) to elect the Indy GOP candidate. Take a look at the past issues of Time, Newsweek, and Congressional Quarterly Weekly Reports from 1968 and the Nixon-Humphrey-Wallace campaign to see how it might happen. (Paragraph) On the LP, there will be an increase in the vote for president and local offices, however I don’t believe it will go beyond that.
In Texas, independent candidates for other offices had to file in December, and for some offices may not begin collecting signatures until later this month.
Independent presidential candidates could begin collecting signatures in March. And they could also run as a write-in candidate.
Don Willis- Your use of the phrase “political hemlock” was hilarious and the most memorable term used in all my years of reading the posts on this website.
Trenton- Welcome to the Constitution Party. We are open to all citizens who feel we are heading in the wrong direction as a country. We do hope that you are not changing parties for this election cycle only. But if the Republican and Democrat Parties, respectively, with their open-borders policy and escalation of the debt from $5.7T on 1-20-2001 to $19T today has disenfranchised you, then you are in the right place.