The hysteria over Donald Trump continues within the GOP establishment and now Politico is reporting that some major GOP donors are seeking to potentially launch an independent candidate to challenge Donald Trump and the Democrat presidential candidate. A GOP consulting firm has been hired to research ballot access issues and, perhaps to identify a possible candidate. With the GOP seemingly about to splinter, Hillary Clinton mast have a big smile on her face. On a wider scale, perhaps the movement, if it continues, will be the first step in the official death of the Republican Party. Here are article highlights:
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.
The research points to Texas and North Carolina as early tests for running an independent, conservative candidate against Trump and the Democratic nominee. The candidate would need to gather over 79,900 valid petition signatures in Texas by May 9 and over 89,000 in North Carolina by June 9.
Only two other states have
thresholds that high, and gathering petitions can be an expensive and
time-consuming process. What’s more, the Texas signatures would have to come
entirely from voters who did not vote in this year’s Democratic and Republican
primaries.
But “with 38 electoral votes in play
in Texas and North Carolina’s true swing state status, failing to qualify in
either or both states would render any independent candidate non-viable,” the
report's authors wrote. “This is logistically possible but will require
immediate action.”
By July 15, the independent
candidate would need more than 460,000 voter signatures to make the ballot in
11 states. Assuming an April 1 start date, the campaign would have to gather
4,345 valid signatures per day to maintain a steady pace.
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