Rocky De La Fuente is a San Diego businessman who is aggressively seeking a spot on Democratic presidential primary ballots. He has already qualified in nine states, from among the fifteen states in which the deadline has passed. He describes himself as a conservative Democrat.

Federal Election Commission records show that he has donated $10,000 over the past sixteen years to various Republican candidates for federal office, but only $1,000 to Democrats. Among Republicans he contributed to are President George W. Bush in 2004, and California Republican members of Congress Duncan Hunter, Brian Bilbray, and Darrell Issa.

Early in December 2015, the Virginia Republican Party decided that voters who ask for a Republican presidential primary ballot in March 1, 2016, must sign below a statement that says, “My signature below indicates I am a Republican.” See this story. Virginia does not have registration by party.

Some years ago the party considered asking voters in its primaries to sign below a statement that the voter intends to vote Republican in the upcoming general election, but that idea was dropped.

This Bloomberg News story says Jim Webb recently criticized Hillary Clinton’s performance as Secretary of State. The story then talks about the possibility of Webb declaring as an independent presidential candidate.

It is not clear why the story talks about Ralph Nader’s 2000 run as involving “fractions of a percent.” Nader received more than 1% of the vote in every state in which he was on the ballot, in 2000, except Mississippi (.83%) and Tennessee (.95%). His best percentage was in Alaska, where he got 10.10%. Also the story says South Dakota has the earliest independent presidential deadline, and quotes me for saying that. I am quoted correctly but I was mistaken; the South Dakota independent presidential deadline is in August. UPDATE: the story has been corrected.