Conservative donors have engaged a major GOP consulting firm in Florida to research the feasibility of mounting a late, independent run for president amid growing fears that Donald Trump could win the Republican nomination.
A memo prepared for the group zeroes in on ballot access as a looming obstacle for any independent candidate, along with actually identifying a viable, widely known contender and coalescing financial support for that person. The two states with the earliest deadlines for independent candidates, Texas and North Carolina, also have some of the highest hurdles for independents to get on the ballot, according to the research.
“All this research has to happen before March 16, when inevitably Trump is the nominee, so that we have a plan in place,” a source familiar with the discussions said. March 16 is the day after the GOP primary in Florida, a winner-take-all contest that Marco Rubio supporters have identified as a must-win to stop Trump’s early momentum.
(hat tip to Ballot Access News)
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/doors-gop-consulting-independent-219859#ixzz41JivYvGo
Text of report @ http://static.politico.com/4b/2e/f597073c4ba18c25c6b1bc1396a4/independent-ballot-access.pdf
Forbes has started advertising his book vigorously. He can actually afford to do this, regardless of what the rest of his party is doing.
A longer report elsewhere estimated a half-million required signatures, so perhaps a million raw signatures, meaning after taking account of Republican campaign consultants probably under ten million dollars to put the candidate on the ballot. That’s peanuts for this sort of an effort. (The LP does it for much less.) Renting the Libertarian, Green, or Constitution Party position is not a plausible option.
The serious challenge is not putting someone on the ballot, it’s identifying “someone” by name. Who would these people propose to run as a sane conservative?
Incidentally, readers who do not believe that the D and R parties have internal feuds should read RedMassGroup.com.
Pauly,
If this comes….
This would be something…
especially in States where you it doesn’t matter where you vote in the Primary.
It could be a Ham sandwich and this still would be something…