The Hill has this interview with Donald Trump. He says he would consider running for President outside the Republican Party if the party in unfair to him. Also see this story.
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On July 22, Public Policy Polling released a comprehensive poll for the 2016 presidential race. The poll has results for the Republican nomination race and the Democratic nomination race, and general election results as well. See here.
For the Republican race, there is a tie for tenth place between Chris Christie and John Kasich, each of whom has 3%. The tenth position is important because Fox News won’t allow anyone into its evening debate on August 6 except for the top ten candidates. Thanks to Political Wire for the link.
Idaho holds a presidential primary on March 8, 2016, for qualified parties that tell the Secretary of State that they want a presidential primary and will have at least two candidates. The Constitution Party has notified the Secretary of State that it intends to have a contested presidential primary.
Earlier this year, the legislature moved the presidential primary from May 2016 to March 2016. The Constitution Party’s presidential convention is in April 2016. The Constitution Party says the delegates sent to the national convention will be bound by the outcome of its presidential primary.
This will be the first time the Constitution Party has ever had a presidential primary in any state with at least two candidates listed on the ballot. The Constitution Party has had presidential primaries in California and Missouri, but in those primaries only one presidential candidate was on the primary ballot. Thanks to Floyd Whitley for the news.
On July 12, the Socialist Workers Party said it will petition to place its nominee for Mayor of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on the November 3 ballot. The nominee, Osborne Hart, needs 1,819 valid signatures by August 3, 2015.
This is the biggest petition the Socialist Workers Party has attempted since 2012, when it placed its presidential nominee on the Minnesota ballot. That petition required 2,000 signatures.
As far as is known, no other minor party or independent candidate is attempting to get on the ballot for Mayor of Philadelphia. Philadelphia has partisan city elections. Thanks to IndependentPoliticalReport for the news.
Former U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman here criticizes the Commission on Presidential Debates for its rules on who can participate in the debate. Although there has been a lot of criticism of the CPD, Lieberman makes some original and thoughtful points. Lieberman’s article appears in U.S. News & World Report.
Lieberman is the first person who has ever actually appeared in a Commission on Presidential Debates event who has since criticized the exclusionary rules. As the Democratic vice-presidential nominee in 2000, he debated Dick Cheney in the CPD vice-presidential debate. Thanks to IVN for the link.