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Posted on 05.16.08 by Stephen Covington @ 4:21 pm
We’ve heard a lot about Ron Paul in the last year…huge rallies, fanatical supporters, oddly place highway banners. Paul has run as a Republican in the primaries, and has so far not given a clear indication as to how, or whether, he will run in the general election. A candidate is now vying for the Libertarian Party nomination, and it’s not Paul. Bob Barr, an ex-GOPer and former Congressman from Georgia, has announced that he is seeking top billing by the LP. This is obviously a source of consternation for the McCain camp - it means further vote siphoning, another alternative, and a potential headache should Barr attempt to split the GOP on issues ranging from the Iraq War to McCain’s record on campaign finance reform. More importantly, what does it mean for Ron Paul? Paul depends on attention from Libertarians and sympathetic elements of the Republican Party to make his splash. If he eventually decides to run as an Independent, this will be at least somewhat of a diversion from his efforts. After all the hype, could this represent the slow sputtering out of the Paul campaign? Filed under: Campaign 2008 and John McCain and Ron Paul and Third Parties Comments: 18 Comments |
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Posted on 04.27.08 by Austin Cassidy @ 3:43 pm
Having just lost his bid to become the Constitution Party’s presidential nominee, Alan Keyes did an interview with Missouri Viewpoints about his political ideas and his future. The interview is conducted in the corner of a hotel meeting room and appears to feature a studio audience of about 2 people. Keyes starts by comparing his defeat to the aborting of an unborn baby. When asked if he plans to continue running for President as an independent, he doesn’t close the door on any possibility… Filed under: Alan Keyes and Third Parties Comments: 2 Comments |
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Posted on 04.26.08 by Austin Cassidy @ 5:28 pm
Pastor Chuck Baldwin, and former 2004 VP candidate, won the Constitution Party’s nomination for Presidential today. He defeated former Ambassador Alan Keyes by a margin of 384 to 126 delegates. This is not much of a surprise, considering that Howard Phillips, the founder of the Constitution Party, gave a speech to the convention yesterday blasting Keyes as a political opportunist. Keyes seems like the kind of guy who doesn’t take losing very well. It wouldn’t surprise me if we now see him try and form his own party, run as an independent, or go after another nomination - maybe from the nearly-defunct Reform Party. No word yet on who the Constitution Party will nominate for Vice-President. Filed under: Alan Keyes and Campaign 2008 and Third Parties Comments: 4 Comments |
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Posted on 04.25.08 by Austin Cassidy @ 2:40 am
This week the tiny Constitution Party is holding their national nominating convention in Kansas City, Missouri. Along with the many points of internal party business that will be addressed… the main task for the delegates is to pick a ticket for November that will likely appear on 35-45 state ballots. The current fight for the party’s Presidential nomination seems to be between Former Ambassador Alan Keyes, who left the Republican Party after his unsuccessful run this Spring, and talk radio host Chuck Baldwin. Baldwin is the choice of many long-time party activitists. He served as the Vice-Presidential nominee along with Michael Peroutka in 2004 and the two captured a decent showing with 144,499 votes. That was up from the 98,000 or so votes that Howard Phillips recieved in 2000, but down from the party’s 1996 showing. Of course, Pat Buchanan was the Reform Party’s nominee in 2000, and those tickets were going after many of the same voters. Alan Keyes has turned off many within the party because he supports the current War in Iraq, while Baldwin strongly opposes it - a view shared by most Constitution Party members. Keyes is also seen as arrogant and disconnected by some, but there is definitely the chance he could win hundreds of thousands of disaffected Republican votes in November. A Baldwin candidacy would likely be “more of the same” from the Constitution Party… perhaps drawing a quarter million votes at best. Tomorrow the candidates will have a chance to address the convention and then votes will be taken to pick both the Presidential and Vice-Presidential nominees. With so many unhappy delegates in the room, it wouldn’t be too surprising if a compromise candidate popped up at the last second…. or if the delegates try to nominate Congressman Ron Paul. Filed under: Alan Keyes and Third Parties Comments: 1 Comment |
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Posted on 03.28.08 by Austin Cassidy @ 2:35 am
Republican Presidential candidate Alan Keyes and Democratic Presidential candidate Mike Gravel never got much traction in their major party campaigns. But it turns out that neither is willing to give up that easily. Despite failing to top even 1% of the vote in any primary or caucus to date, former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel has announced he is leaving the Democratic Party and registering with the Libertarians. This strikes some as quite odd, since Gravel’s views on socialized health care and other “big government” projects stand in direct contradiction to much of the Libertarian Party’s platform and ideals. Gravel has said that he will be seeing the party’s nomination for President at the upcoming national convention in Denver. Gravel’s celebrity is a plus, but his path to the nomination is far from clear. Two long-time party activists, Steve Kubby and George Phillies, have been in the running for many months already. Businessman, and self-described millionaire, Wayne Allyn Root launched his campaign last year. Author Mary Ruwart has recently joined the fight, and former Congressman Bob Barr is widely expected to jump in as well. That is a mixture that should make for some entertaining viewing on C-SPAN. On the conservative side, Alan Keyes has decided to keep his campaign going as well. He has said that he will be leaving the Republican Party to join the Constitution Party and seek their nomination. Keyes made his best showing in the Republican primaries this year with 1.5% of the vote in the Kansas caucus. Keyes faces many of the same challenges as Gravel. The Constitution Party is strongly anti-war, while Keyes has been a major advocate of U.S. involvement in Iraq and elsewhere. Keyes was also an ambassador to the UN during the Reagan administration, while the Constitution Party wants to pull America out of the organization. It will be interesting to see how these guys fare. Should they be successful in winning their nomination fights, the Fall ballot seems likely to offer the following choices: John McCain, Republican I think that’s a pretty nice line-up of candidates if you’re John McCain. But we’ll have to wait and see how the Libertarian and Constitution conventions turn out first. Filed under: Alan Keyes and Campaign 2008 and Third Parties Comments: 15 Comments |
