On November 30, Gary Johnson told reporters in his home state of New Mexico that he sees no chance of pulling a large vote in the New Hampshire Republican primary, mostly because he was not included in 14 of the last 16 Republican debates. In the interview, he also seems to be leaning toward seeking the Libertarian nomination. See the report here from New Mexico Capitol Report.
On November 30, the Colorado Secretary of State’s office confirmed that the Americans Elect petition for party status has enough valid signatures. The party submitted 17,954 signatures, and needed 10,000 valid. The petition contained 12,191 valid signatures. Americans Elect is the first party to qualify by petition in Colorado since 2004.
This newspaper story quotes Buddy Roemer has saying that his ideal running mate would be U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman. However, the story then says that Senator Lieberman has thanked Roemer, but that Lieberman has no interest in running for Vice-President again. In 2000 he was the Democratic Party’s nominee for vice-president.
The most interesting aspect of this story is that it seems to show Roemer’s intention to run for President outside of the major parties remains strong.
On November 22, the ACLU filed this brief in U.S. District Court in Kelly v Johnson, the case against the March petition deadline for non-presidential independent candidates.
The Portsmouth Herald, a daily newspaper in New Hampshire, has this article exploring whether it makes any difference that independents may vote in the New Hampshire Republican presidential primary. The sources quoted in the article all say that even if only registered Republicans could vote in that primary, the typical outcome would be the same. One source says exit poll data confirms that in 2008, even if only registered Republicans had been voting in that primary, John McCain still would have won.
