On October 31, Don Blankenship, former CEO of Massey Energy Company, filed the notice with the Federal Election Commission that he is running for president. Here is the form, which lists the party as “CON”, an abbreviation for Constitution.
Ballot Access News
Edited By Richard Winger
Well, guess it’s official. Can’t wait for the media to try to make him out to be a criminal again.
Top CP folks have better ballot access lawyers than LP/Greens ???
— who can detect EQUAL in 14-1 ???
I am not sure how in line with the Constitution Party platform this guy is, but he’s got the money to make a big difference for the CP.
Can a post office box be a legal place of residence?
@CO,
FEC instructions are that this is a mailing address.
Otherwise Tom Steyer has spent so much he has been reduced to living at a post office in San Francisco.
Oddly, Joe Biden has an address in Washington, DC. That is a long commute from Wilmington to pick up his mail.
@Andy, Oddly, last fall after speaking at a national meeting and when it was speculated HERE that he might seek the party’s nomination, he told folks in the WV party that it was too expensive to run for president and that he wasn’t very interested. Now Mr. Blankenship has put himself on the hook to financially assist with the party’s ballot access drives in states all across the country. Certainly hope he begins to fund this effort NOW since waiting til the last minute inevitably results in failure.
How many PO Boxes for USA military and spy folks ???
Prez T now claiming Florida as his residence — to reduce NY RED Donkeys going after him for 50 plus years of crimes/torts.
Are we sure that ‘CON’ is an abbreviation for Constitution Party rather than convict?
OR… CONstipated!
or CON-Man or CON-fused or CON-struction after DES-truction ???
Be careful folks. Mr. Blankenship has an active lawsuit against a large number of journalists, media outlets, and public figures for slander regarding misrepresenting him as a felon. Please take the time to read up on the truth about what actually occurred. Thank you.
Mr. Blankenship can run for the Constitution Party’s presidential nomination, win it, and not contribute any of his own money to ballot access, but if he does this, he is not likely to qualify for the ballot in very many states.
Jeff, you are correct about the importance of starting ballot access drives early. The cost, and the odds of failure, greatly increase the longer you wait to start.
I had already heard the negative news coverage of Mr. Blankenship prior to watching this interview. It is 2 hours and 30 minutes long, but worth it if you want to hear his story. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZNJeAobmyI
It is an excellent interview by Dave Sussman.
How many states is the Constitution Party on the ballot for 2020 ?
About 30 so far
Bob G- according to the November BAN the CP has 2020 ballot status in 15 states.
Make that 13 -Richard still wants to count Oregon & Idaho, even though those state parties left the national one and plan to run different presidential candidates next year.
Nice trolling, Michael.
Cody, the reason the Idaho Constitution Party wouldn’t put Darrell Castle on the ballot in 2016 was because he hadn’t participated in the Idaho Constitution Party presidential primary. As far as I know, there is no reason to think Don Blankenship won’t participate in the 2020 Constitution Party presidential primary.
Also, in 1968 and 1964, the Alabama Democratic Party wouldn’t list the party’s national convention nominee for president on the ballot. But that doesn’t mean the Alabama Democratic Party wasn’t on the ballot in those years. So anyone who had a chart showing which states the Democratic Party was on the ballot would still have listed Alabama as a state in which the party was ballot-qualified. Also in 2000 the Arizona Libertarian Party wouldn’t put Harry Browne on the ballot but it was still a ballot-qualified party. Ditto for the Socialist Party in Connecticut in 1940 (it refused to put Norman Thomas on the ballot); and the Republican Parties of California and South Dakota in 1912 (they wouldn’t list William Howard Taft as their presidential nominee); ditto for the Democratic Parties in 1948 of South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana.
Both Oregon and Idaho permit qualified parties to change their names. If the Constitution Parties of those two states don’t want to be considered Constitution Parties, why don’t they change their name? The fact that they keep the name is enough for me to list them as what they are.
Richard, the Idaho CP is running their own presidential primary, and they’re not necessarily going to nominate whomever the national CP selects as their presidential nominee.
Your logic in including them in the National CP’s vote total just because they share the name ‘Constitution Party’- is as logical as including the Independent American Party of Nevada with the ballot-access & vote totals for the National Independent American Party (which is ballot qualified in Utah) -because, after all Richard, they share the name ‘Independent American Party’ too.
So it’s possible the Idaho Constitution Party will nominate the same person for president that the national convention chooses? Earlier I thought you said there is no chance for that.
The Constitution Parties of Idaho and Oregon were put on the ballot by people who were part of the newly forming Constitution Party back in 1992. It isn’t just a matter of party name; it’s also a matter of the origin of the state party. If the Constitution Party of Oregon and Idaho had never had anything to do with the national Constitution Party, then I wouldn’t list them in the Constitution Party column.
The Independent American Party of Nevada has been part of the national Constitution Party from the beginning. The Independent American Party of Utah was never part of the national Constitution Party.