The Roanoke Times has this story about former Virginia Congressman Virgil Goode. It focuses on the upcoming Constitution Party national convention, and says Goode may very well be the Constitution Party’s presidential nominee.

Goode spent 24 years in the Virginia legislature, and then was elected to Congress as a Democrat in 1996. In 2000 he was re-elected as an independent candidate. In 2002 he was re-elected as a Republican. He served until 2008, when he was defeated for re-election by only 727 votes.

Connecticut holds its presidential primary on April 24, and Pennsylvania holds its primary for president and all other partisan office on the same day. The various minor parties that are petitioning in those states will make special efforts to have lots of petitioners stationed near polling places on April 24. Petitioning outside polling places is generally very fruitful. Virtually everyone on the scene is a registered voter, and frequently people must wait in line and thus are more likely to be receptive. Many states do not permit petitioning within 100 feet of the entrance to a polling place, but this restriction is generally not so severe as to interfere with all petitioning.

Connecticut and Pennsylvania election laws permit stand-in presidential candidates on petitions.

Thomas L. Friedman, one of the New York Times’ best-known op-ed columnists, has this column urging Michael Bloomberg to run for President this year. Although the column does not mention Americans Elect, it is obvious that if Bloomberg did decide to run, Americans Elect would be the easiest way for him to run. Friedman emphasizes that Bloomberg doesn’t need to win for his campaign to be useful. Friedman assumes Bloomberg would be in the general election debates and that his message in those debates would vastly improve the political dialogue.