“The Week” is an English-language publication that originated in Great Britain, but which has U.S. and Australian versions. It has this interesting analysis of Donald Trump’s appeal. It says that Samuel Francis, an intellectual and an advisor to Pat Buchanan twenty years ago, urged Buchanan to run for President as a nationalist, not a conservative. Thanks to Phil Berg for the link.
According to this major New York Times story, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg is seriously thinking about running for president as an independent. The story says that Donald Trump has already said that he would welcome Bloomberg into the race, if Trump himself were the Republican. Trump is said to think that Bloomberg’s entry into the race would injure the Democratic nominee. Others quoted in the story believe Bloomberg would injure the Republican nominee.
Here is another story in Slate, although it is shorter and doesn’t add any detail. Also see this from TIME magazine.
Tennessee State Senator Mae Beavers (R-Mt. Juliet) and State Representative John Mark Windle (D-Livingston) have introduced identical bills, SB 2528 and HB 2457, to lower the number of signatures for a newly-qualifying party. The bill as introduced only lowers the petitions from 2.5% of the last gubernatorial vote to 1.5% of the last gubernatorial vote. That would drop the existing requirement of 33,816 signatures down to 20,290. That is still too high. The sponsors are open to amending the bill but wanted to get the bills introduced by the legislative deadline. Thanks to Daniel Lewis for this information.
Virginia Senator Chap Petersen (D-Fairfax) has introduced SB 686. It would provide that at primary elections, no party would be permitted to insist that voters choosing that party’s primary ballot sign a statement saying they are party members. The bill has an emergency clause, meaning it would go into effect immediately if passed.
The Oklahoma Libertarian Party is virtually finished with its petition drive to become a qualified party in Oklahoma. Assuming the petition is valid, this will be the first time since 2000 that any party has been on the ballot in Oklahoma, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties.
