New York Times writer Matt Bai has this interesting article about Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The article is triggered by Bloomberg’s appearance on December 13 at the “No Labels” meeting in Washington, D.C. Bai suggests that Bloomberg still may decide to run for President as an independent, and that he can wait until the 2012 primaries. This is accurate, generally. All states have independent presidential petition deadlines that are in July, August and September, except for a handful in June, and the deviant Texas deadline in May. The Texas deadline is almost certainly unconstitutional.
Bai’s generalization that the internet has made petitioning easier is questionable. Many states still have laws and regulations that make it impossible for supporters to download and print blank petition forms on their home computers and printers. Some states require that all signatures be gathered on state-printed forms. Other states permit photocopies but require that they be on legal size paper. No state except Utah permits signatures to be obtained electronically, and most New England states still have the cumbersome procedure that signatures must be submitted to each town clerk, and then gathered up by the petitioning candidate or group and then taken to the state elections office. Another big problem is that only a handful of states require that shopping malls permit petitioners on their property, and even the government-owned post office still forbids petitioning on its interior sidewalks (although the Postal Service regulation is being contested in court).
Salon editor Steve Kornacki has this reaction to Bai’s article. Kornacki criticizes Bai for implying that an independent presidential candidacy is something that has only been possible in the internet age, and points out that Ross Perot’s independent run in 1992 was before the internet age.