Ballot Access News:

“Americans Elect did not exist in 2010, and now has 3,285 registrants, so it is the only nationally-organized party that now has more registrants than in 2010.”

New Mexico Says Americans Elect Petition Has Enough Valid Signatures (this also qualifies them for 2014 in NM)

Americans Elect Submits Wyoming Petition

On February 2, Americans Elect submitted its Wyoming petition. It needed 3,740 signatures and submitted more than 8,000

Americans Elect Web Page Now Lets Candidates File for On-Line Presidential Primary

Americans Elect’s web page now lets candidates file to compete for the organization’s presidential nomination, and also lets voters participate in an effort to draft a candidate

Americans Elect Begins Holding Regional Meetings

Americans Elect has started holding regional meetings for people who have signed up to be leaders and activists in the organization.

January 2012 BAN ballot access chart for AE (compiled late December 2011):

Already on: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Kansas, Michigan, Mississippi, Nevada, Ohio, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont (total 15)

Finished petitioning but not yet certified: Maine, Missouri, New Mexico (NM since certified, see above)

In progress (valid signatures needed in parentheses): Alabama 72,000 (44,829), Georgia 69,000 (50,334), Idaho 23,000 (13,102), Maryland 8,100 (10,000), Montana 7,800 (5,000), Nebraska 5,700 (4,880), North Carolina 83,000 (85,379), North Dakota 2,000 (7,000), Oklahoma 28,000 (51,739), Oregon 35,000 (21,804), South Carolina 16,500 (10,000), South Dakota 2,500 (7,928), Tennessee 55,500 (40,042), Wyoming 8,000 (3,740; since then submitted, see above). Several of these states have since finished according to the subsequent BAN report, however Richard Winger has asked me not to publish that data before he puts it on the web. Email and print Ballot Access News subscribers have this info already.

Allowed to start, but had no signatures shown as of that report: Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin (WI since then started – see previous update). Out of these states several have since started. I can confirm from sources other than Ballot Access News that Iowa is one of them.

Not allowed to start: DC, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington State.

Irregular Times:

Sh*t Politicians Say? Americans Elect is Saying the Same Sh*t

It’s a clever video, slickly produced. I’ll be the first to admit that it’s funny. It’s hilarious, even. But the next time Americans Elect produces a viral video criticizing the “Sh*t Politicians Say,” it might want to check its own …

In Arizona, Americans Elect Party Registrations Heaviest in Republican Areas

Is Americans Elect a political party? Despite its protests to the contrary, the answer is a hearty Yes Indeed.

What Americans Elect Wants From You / What Americans Elect Will Tell You

Personal Information the Americans Elect Corporation Requires from all Applicants interested in becoming State Committee Members or Electors Full Legal Name Address Birth Date Social Security Number Duration of Current Residency Citizenship Status Voter Registration Status Name of Congressional Representative Plans to Move, if Any Criminal Record Reasons for Supporting Americans Elect Justification of Fit Plan for Voter Outreach History of Personal Bankruptcy History of Civil Suits Credit Report Tax History Employment Verification Educational Verification Personal Interviews with Friends, Acquaintances, Associates, Employers, Former Employers, Bankers, Landlords Agreement “not to file or pursue any complaints, claims or legal actions against AE or any of its employees, representatives, or agents”. Waiver of right to written notice of investigation

Personal Information the Americans Elect Corporation Shares regarding the People who are Funding its Operations Nothing.

31 hour Green Party Straw Poll outpulls 60 hour Americans Elect Candidate Draft

Americans Elect, Insisting it is Not A Political Party, Generates Thousands of Political Party Registrations in California

January 31, 2012: Americans Elect Political Director Darry Sragow is the latest in a long parade of Americans Elect corporate leaders to declare that Americans Elect is not a political party

Ten Questions for Americans Elect, February 2012

Jim Cook summarizes what he considers the ten most important unanswered questions for Americans Elect:

1. What are the names of the people who have provided more than $1,000 worth of funding or other valued support to Americans Elect?

2. Americans Elect has indicated that it would pay back large-dollar funders from an anticipated large pool of small-dollar donations, “so that our candidates will answer only to the American people.” (source). The converse implication of this quote is that if the money is not paid back, candidates will not only be answering to the American people. The selection process for candidates to qualify for the Americans Elect ballot began on January 31, 2012. As of January 31, 2012, in an aggregate dollar amount, how much of these loans have been paid back? How much of these loans have not been paid back?

3. Americans Elect Political Director Darry Sragow has been quoted as saying (http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2011/12/21/americans_elect_no_molotov_cocktails_please.html) that “The folks running Americans Elect, they don’t know who the donors are.” But Americans Elect’s leadership also characterizes the motivations of the donors, that they “share a deep concern about our country’s broken political system, and a strong desire to do something about it. But they also know that it’s hard being among the first to publicly support something that challenges an entrenched and powerful establishment.” (Source) It is also publicly known that one of the largest multimillion funders of Americans Elect, Peter Ackerman, is its Chairman. Can Americans Elect explain these discrepancies?

4. I’ve always believed that the Golden Rule is a useful test for the ethics of a person or group.

Americans Elect: do you believe we should let the Republicans and Democrats take contributions of unlimited size without disclosure of the contributions’ source or amounts?

5. Without naming names, Americans Elect can disclose today:

a. The number of donations it has received, and the dollar amount of each donation.
b. The state or country of residence of each donor.
c. The principal occupation, if any of each donor.
d. The date of each donation.
e. The type of donation: loan, dollar donation, in-kind donation.
f. The amount of each loan that has been paid back by Americans Elect, as it said it would.

g. The number of the funders of Americans Elect who are also among the Americans Elect leadership.

Will Americans Elect please provide this information?

6. Americans Elect declares that “none of our funding comes from special interests or lobbyists.” But in his Sunday New York Times profile of Americans Elect, columnist Thomas Friedman describes “swank offices, financed with some serious hedge-fund money, a stone’s throw from the White House.”

Given recent special interest advocacy of hedge fund operators regarding the Dodd-Frank Act, these two statements appear to be inconsistent. Is Thomas Friedman’s statement regarding hedge fund contributions to Americans Elect inaccurate? Or has Americans Elect been accepting money from the operators of hedge funds?

7. Americans Elect declares publicly that “None of our funding comes from special interests or lobbyists.” But according to the limited list from the Americans Elect Piryx giving stream, one of Americans Elect’s funders is Jim Holbrook. Jim Holbrook is the current Chair of the Promotion Marketing Association, which in its online material describes its role as furthering the interests of the promotion marketing industry.

How does this funding source jibe with Americans Elect’s pledge that it doesn’t take special interest money? If this source of funding doesn’t count as a special interest source, what would?

8. On Americans Elect’s “About” page, Americans Elect “None of our funding comes from special interests or lobbyists.” But according to an incomplete list via the Americans Elect “giving stream” and Americans Elect disclosure documents from the time before it shifted to a no-disclosure, Peter Ackerman and Melvin Andrews and Kirk Rostron — all private capital investment executives — have provided funding the Americans Elect 501c4 corporation.

The private capital investment sector of the economy has been agitating politically in the last year for the government to make changes to the wording or interpretation of the Dodd-Frank Act to benefit their business’ bottom line. This means that private capital investment executives have special interests, by the dictionary definition of the term.

There appears to be a contradiction between Americans Elect’s claims and its practices. How would Americans Elect explain this contradiction?

9. According to Americans Elect Rule 2.2.1.1, there are two ways to qualify for a vote for Americans Elect ballot access. The first is to gain 10,000 “support” votes, and the second is to gain 50,000 “support” votes. Who gets into the easier 10,000 “support” vote tier? If you are a corporate executive leading 1,000 employees, you’re automatically in. If you’re a university president, you have to lead 4,000 students. And if you head up a labor union, you have to lead 100,000 union members. In the universe of political privilege that Americans Elect has constructed, a single employee is literally worth four students, and one employee is worth a hundred union members.

Why is that, Americans Elect?

With Zero Candidates on Target to Qualify for its Ballot, Americans Elect Postpones its Election

On January 31 2012, Americans Elect opened up the qualifying round of voting in the first-ever online, proprietary, corporate-run presidential nomination. Starting that morning, Americans Elect delegates could visit this page to draft possible presidential contenders and cast votes in support of qualifying those draft contenders for the Americans Elect nomination. Under the rules in place when this round of drafting and voting began, political insiders had to nab 10,000 votes of support by April 3 2012 to qualify for the ballot, and political outsiders had to gain 50,000 votes of support.

But very quickly, a problem emerged. 24 hours later, on the morning of February 1 2012, only 404 votes of support had been registered for 37 presidential contenders. The top 5 contenders (Ron Paul, Jon Huntsman, Buddy Roemer, Mike Bloomberg and Bernie Sanders) had on average gained 55 votes of support apiece. Even Ron Paul, the most supported contender, had only gained 98 votes of support on Day 1. That’s far from the pace of over 159 votes/day needed for a contender to reach 10,000 votes by April 3. For political outsiders seeking to run a grassroots campaign, the needed 794 votes/day weren’t anywhere close to appearing.

And so, on February 1 2012, Americans Elect leadership met to pass revision to the ballot qualification process. Under the new rules proposed and passed February 1, presidential contenders would have until May 15, not April 3, to gather the threshold number of votes of support. These rule changes, made with the drafting process already underway, reduce the needed pace of supporting votes down to 95/day.

With 77 days to go before the first ballot, the combination corporation/political party called Americans Elect opened up a system today for delegates to draft presidential candidates to appear in its proprietary, privatized online presidential nominating system. The official rules of Americans Elect create three standards by which a draft candidate can qualify to appear on the ballot.

Standard 1: If a candidate has been one of the following… “Vice President, United States Senator, Member of Congress, Presidential Cabinet Member, Head of a federal agency, Governor, Mayor of any of the largest 100 cities in the United States, Chairman or Chief Executive Officer or President of any corporation or nonprofit corporation or philanthropic organization with 1,000 or more employees, President of a national labor union with 100,000 or more members, military officer who has attained flag rank [General or Admiral], Ambassador, and President of an American-based university with more than 4,000 members” … then the candidate is Automatically Qualified as a presidential-quality candidate and has to collect just 10,000 clicks of support from 10 states to appear on the ballot.

Standard 2: If a candidate does have the experience referenced above, but the Americans Elect’s corporate Candidate Certification Committee steps in and decides that the candidate is qualified to be president anyway, “in view of the Contingently Qualified Candidate’s equivalent experience and demonstrated capability,” then the candidate is deemed Contingently Qualified as a presidential-quality candidate and has to collect 50,000 clicks of support to appear on the ballot.

Standard 3: A candidate not Automatically Qualified or deemed to be Contingently Qualified by the Candidate Certification Committee can still qualify for the ballot IF the Candidate Certification Committee vote to reject the candidate was not unanimous. In order to obtain ballot qualification, a majority of all people who have ever been registered as Americans Elect delegates will have to visit the Americans Elect website and affirmatively vote to support the candidate’s access to the ballot.

Meanwhile, the Republican race for the presidential nomination has continued to grow more bitter between Romney and Gingrich. With Romney winning in relatively moderate areas like New Hampshire and southern and central Florida, Gingrich winning in more conservative areas such as South Carolina and northern Florida, and both candidates having plenty of money, it appears at this time that their battle will be protracted and very negative in tone.

Tom Knapp notes

This is Romney’s fourth time out in this cycle. He’s 2 for 4, and has yet to break 50% anywhere. The majority of Republican primary voters keep saying “not Mitt.”

In past cases like this, the big parties have come together – Obama and Clinton, Reagan and Bush. Could this time be different?

Several candidates formerly seeking the Republican presidential nomination have already jumped ship and are seeking the nomination of other parties. Gary Johnson has switched to the Libertarian race, which most observers believe he is leading at the moment. Buddy Roemer is (last I checked) still seeking the Republican nomination, but is shut out of the debates, polls and media coverage, and is also seeking the Americans Elect nomination. Ron Paul ran as a Libertarian in 1988, endorsed Constitution Party presidential candidate Chuck Baldwin in the 2008 general election, currently leads in number of supporters for the Americans Elect nomination (although he would have to express interest in it to be nominated), and has refused to rule out a run as something other than a Republican. Donald Trump briefly sought the Reform Party nomination in 2000, and also briefly sought the Republican nomination for this year (but dropped out before any primaries or caucuses). He has changed his registration to independent and speculated repeatedly about an independent or alternative party run.

News analysts on MSNBC have been speculating tonight about Gingrich running as an independent/alt party candidate should he lose the Republican nomination to Romney. One complication he would face if he makes such a decision is that by the time the Republican contest is decided, it would be very difficult to get on the ballot in all the states in a very short time frame, something mainstream media analysts rarely consider when discussing the possibility of various big party politicians or celebrities mounting last minute alt party/independent runs. Unlike Ron Paul, Gingrich does not have a natural base of support with an existing alternative party with ballot access in most states such as the Libertarian Party. It would seem that Americans Elect could conceivably fill the gap.

Although Americans Elect has no official party platform, it has described its mission as “bridging the vital center of American politics” and has put out a variety of indications that its ideological orientation is most likely to be centrist. The Americans Elect ticket is supposed to be “balanced” by having the VP nominee be from a different party than the presidential nominee, which could present a problem for an ideological candidate such as Gingrich. Gingrich has exploited economic populist themes against Romney to some degree, such as attacks on Bain Capital. It is conceivable that he could find some common ground with Democrats on those issues, although many of his views on economic issues would have to change before he would align more with Democrats than with Republicans on the economy.

If Gingrich wins the Republican nomination, Romney could indeed “bridge the center” by running on the Americans Elect ticket, and he would have the personal wealth to finance such a run, although not to the same degree as NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg, a frequent focus of speculation about the Americans Elect nomination, or even Donald Trump. Bloomberg and Trump are both currently independents, so it’s possible that if one of them were the VP nominee it would be deemed a balanced ticket under Americans Elect rules (whether it would or not is not really clear to me).

Could Gingrich or Romney be the Americans Elect Nominee? Your opinions welcome in the comments.

-paulie

Americans Elect Starts Party Petition in Wisconsin

Americans Elect Petition Approved in Maine

Los Angeles County says that Americans Elect has 2,857 registered voters. Orange County, the second most populous county, has 226 Americans Elect registrants. Santa Clara, the most populous county in northern California, says it has zero Americans Elect registrants

New York Magazine Story on Americans Elect

New York Magazine has this lengthy story about Americans Elect, by John Heilemann. There is not a lot of new material in this article, but the author, having interviewed leaders of Americans Elect, clearly believes that if Ron Paul wanted the Americans Elect nomination, he could obtain it. This contradicts some commentary that believes that leaders of Americans Elect can stop any proposed presidential candidate they don’t like.

The latest BAN ballot access chart available online (data about two months old at this point) for Americans Elect:

Alabama 62,200 raw towards 44,829 valid requirement
Alaska already on
Arizona already on
Arkansas already on
California finished (since then certified -p)
Colorado already on
Connecticut can’t start
Delaware 0
DC can’t start
Florida already on
Georgia 51,300 raw towards 50,334 valid requirement
Hawaii already on
Idaho 0 (now started -p)
Illinois can’t start
Indiana 0
Iowa 0
Kansas already on
Kentucky can’t start (now can, not sure if they have -p)
Louisiana 0
Maine finished (see above -p)
Maryland 1,150 raw towards 10,000 valid requirement
Massachusetts 0
Michigan already on
Minnesota 0
Mississippi 0
Missouri finished
Montana 4,000 raw towards 5,000 valid requirement
Nebraska 3,100 raw towards 4,880 valid requirement
Nevada already on
New Hampshire 0
New Jersey 0
New Mexico 0 (since then completed -p)
New York can’t start
North Carolina 30,800 raw towards 85,379 valid requirement
North Dakota 0 (since then started -p)
Ohio unsettled
Oklahoma 15,200 raw towards 51,739 valid requirement
Oregon 25,500 raw towards 21,804 valid requirement
Pennsylvania can’t start
Rhode Island finished
South Carolina 12,500 raw towards 10,000 valid requirement
South Dakota 0 (since then started -p)
Tennessee 28,200 raw towards 40,042 valid requirement
Texas can’t start
Utah already on
Vermont organizing (requirement is to be organized)
Virginia can’t start
Washington can’t start
West Virginia 0
Wisconsin can’t start (now started; see above -p)
Wyoming 5,050 (since then completed -p)

11 states certified as of about two months ago.

Irregular Times:

Democracy Managed

Self-proclaimed “centrist” presidential candidate David Jon Sponheim and an associate have been live-streaming the proceedings of an Americans Elect “conference” being held in California. I put the word “conference” in quotes because there’s not much “co” to the proceedings. Facilitator Jake Brewer (a corporate communications professional) has been using phrases like “co-creation” and “all about you” and “this is your movement” all morning and into the afternoon, with promises to the 30 or so attendees that they are in charge. But the big pad of paper he’s brought to write on is already filled-in with insights to be shared — insights like the importance of a “rapid response” team to scour the internet and respond to negative remarks. The agenda was already set before the conference, and the proceedings for hours now has consisted of Jake Brewer standing in charge up front, asking directed questions, with everyone else responding and Brewer eventually moving on to a new point. So far, the individuals invited to attend haven’t actually been allowed to make any decisions for themselves.

Nick Troiano’s List of Possible Americans Elect Presidential Candidates

From Americans Elect National Campus Director Nick Troiano:

Steve Ballmer
Meg Whitman
Mitt Romney
Eric E. Schmidt
David Petraeus
Hillary Clinton
David Boren
Erskine Bowles
Oprah Winfrey
Kenneth Chenault
Evan Bayh
Sam Nunn
Colin Powell
Bill Bradley
John Chambers
Mike Bloomberg
Antonio Villaraigosa
Tom Brokaw
Fred Smith
John Roberts
Tim Pawlenty
Bill Cohen
Condoleezza Rice
Jeb Bush
Brian L. Roberts
Jon Corzine
Barack Obama
Howard Schultz
Anderson Cooper
Lee Hamilton
Charlie Crist
Bob Kerry
Mitch Daniels
Jim Lehrer
Chris Christie
Alan Mulally
Bill Gates
Marco Rubio
Bob Graham
Robert Gates
Chuck Hagel
David Walker
Mark Warner
Tim Kaine
Jon Huntsman
Ed Whitacre
Tom Ridge
Jeffrey Immelt
Bill Richardson
Steve Jobs

80 Days Before First Candidate Ballot, Americans Elect has no Mechanism to Draft Actual Candidates

80 days from now, on April 17 2012, Americans Elect is scheduled to hold its first online-only vote for its delegates to choose between drafted presidential candidates.

The official Americans Elect rules mandate that efforts to draft candidates must build support through the Americans Elect website. Originally to have debuted on November 6 2011, the capability for people to actually draft candidates and get them qualified for the Americans Elect ballot has been referred to as “coming soon” and “very soon” on the Americans Elect “Candidates” page for three months. As of today, there is no such capability on the Americans Elect website.

Whenever Americans Elect gets around to creating a system for people to draft candidates, the official Americans Elect rules state that the draft efforts will have to collect either 10,000 clicks of support from registered and verified delegates (for insider candidates) or 50,000 clicks (for outsider candidates). That task doesn’t have to be done by April 17 (80 days from now). That task has to be done by April 3 (just 66 days from now).

From Arizona, another Document to show that Yes, Americans Elect is a Political Party

Is Americans Elect, the first-ever corporate privatized online presidential nomination, a political party?

Gosh, no, said Americans Elect in the Spring of 2011:

“Here is what Americans Elect is not. We are not a third party. We are not a political party of any sort.”

Golly, no, said Americans Elect in the Summer of 2011:

“The key delineation to make is that we’re not a party.”

Heck, no, said Americans Elect in the Fall of 2011:

“We’re not a political party and don’t have an aspiration to be.”

A point-blank no from Americans Elect in December of 2011 in a TV interview with Chris Matthews:

“We’re not a political party, Chris.”

And gee whizzikers, no, Americans Elect continues to insist in January of 2012:

“We are not a political party.”

On our Americans Elect web page we list seven sources documenting Americans Elect as a political party. Need another document? How about this one, straight from the Arizona Secretary of State?

Arizona Secretary of State Document documenting in three locations that Americans Elect is a political party.

Filer Type: Political Party
Organization Type: Political Party
Relationship: National Party

You can’t get much clearer than that. So why does Americans Elect continue to swear up and down, over and over again, publicly, that it is not a political party?

I can’t tell you what motivates Americans Elect, because Americans Elect hasn’t communicated with me, although I’ve sent them questions in many ways.

But I can tell you this:

1. In America, political parties can’t take unlimited amounts of money.
2. In America, political parties can’t hide the names of the people who give them money.
3. Americans Elect is currently doing both.

Disclosures Americans Elect Can Make About its Funders Right Now — Without Retaliation Against Them

Without naming names, Americans Elect can disclose today:

1. The number of donations it has received, and the dollar amount of each donation.
2. The state or country of residence of each donor.
3. The principal occupation, if any of each donor.
4. The date of each donation.
5. The type of donation: loan, dollar donation, in-kind donation.
6. The amount of each loan that has been paid back by Americans Elect, as it said it would.

Unless Americans Elect is incompetently run, it already has this information organized on a spreadsheet or other database. Any competent IT professional could redact the names of funders and post the other relevant information in about an hour’s time. For an organization with tens of millions of dollars in its budget, this should pose no problem.

Also without revealing the names of any funders, it should be possible to assess the veracity of Americans Elect executive Kahlil Byrd’s claim that:

“The donors who have given to the project now — whether they give as little as $1 or much more than that — are supporting an organization where they have absolutely no undue influence over the process and rules for selecting the nominee.”

This can be established by providing the following two counts, again without naming names:

7. The number of the funders of Americans Elect who are also among the Americans Elect leadership.
8. The number of those named among the Americans Elect leadership who are also funders of Americans Elect.

The General Election Pledge Americans Elect Hasn’t Made

We already know that, despite talk of democracy, the leadership of Americans Elect has a heavy influence on the selection of the eventual Americans Elect nominee. But we don’t know how much influence the big-money donors to Americans Elect will have, because the identity of those donors is being kept a secret. And although Americans Elect pledges that it will not intervene as a corporate body in the general presidential election, intervention by Americans Elect’s big money funders has not been ruled out.

[..]
But here’s what Americans Elect won’t pledge: it won’t pledge that the small, undisclosed set of people who have brought Americans Elect into existence with their big, undisclosed funding won’t go right ahead and support that ticket through another entity. It doesn’t pledge that the secret Americans Elect funders won’t create a second no-disclosure corporation to support the candidate. The small, undisclosed group of Americans Elect funders could go right ahead and do that while sticking to the letter of Americans Elect pledge; the new group would be just be called something different, like American Select or Pushing the Future or Xanax for All.

This post at Irregular Times speculates that Americans Elect could be building a commercial database of independent voters for resale.

Delay in Rolling Out Americans Elect Campaign Capability Heavily Advantages Big Money

Even internet phenomenon Ron Paul has fewer than 8,000 people unofficially tracking him (not officially supporting through a “click”) on the Americans Elect system, and he is the most-tracked politician on the Americans Elect website. To get 50,000 clicks of support, a candidate will have to engage in a significant outlay of effort, reaching out beyond the small set of people engaged in the Americans Elect website. Without large amounts of money, a grassroots campaign to spread the word and attract followers could succeed — but such efforts take time, and there’s very little time left before the first ballot. With every day that passes in which Americans Elect delays the rollout of its campaign system, the scales will be tipped ever more heavily to a wealthy self-funded candidate, or to a candidate who is backed by big money. The practical feasibility of an actual grassroots candidacy grows ever more remote.

A West Palm Beach businessman defrauded investors of $2.5 million and used some of the cash to pay for his presidential campaign, the Securities and Exchange Commission said this week.

The SEC’s civil suit says Daniel Imperato, 53, schemed to portray his company, Imperiali of West Palm Beach, as a thriving organization “when in fact it was nothing more than a shell corporation.”

Imperato hired telephone salesmen and found 60 investors to buy stock in his company. The pitch sounded promising: Imperiali claimed to own a stable of television and telecommunications companies poised to generate $350 million in profits on $500 million in revenue in 2009.

“In reality, Imperiali’s portfolio companies had no operations, no products or services, and no revenue,” the SEC’s suit says.

H/T George Phillies

On January 19, the California Senate unanimously passed AB 1413, which, among other things, eliminates write-in space from November ballots for Congress and partisan state office. The bill now goes to the Assembly, because when it passed the Assembly last year, it didn’t have the same provisions.

Meanwhile, another article at Ballot Access News reports that election officials in California, the state with the largest number of Spanish speakers in the US in overall numbers and home of Silicon Valley, were not able to translate “Americans Elect” into Spanish. The party will appear on the ballot for California Spanish speaking US Citizens as “Partido Americans Elect”, only the first of which is a Spanish word. Commenters at BAN and Google Translate suggest Americanos Eligen or Estadounidenses Eligen.

Arkansas Greens have been certified for the ballot as a party, with 14,000 signatures submitted to cover a 10,000 signature requirement. Arkansas Greens were also on the ballot in 2006, 2008 and 2010. During those years Arkansas Greens elected a state legislator and received over 20% for US Senate and multiple US House races, among other achievements. However, they still had to petition again because they did not receive 3% for Governor or President. Their lawsuits to overturn that requirement have been unsuccessful.

This year, the Libertarians also achieved full party status in Arkansas for the first time ever. Prior to this year Arkansas was the only state where Libertarians had never been able to run for offices other than president. This also makes it the first time in the 41 years that Arkansas has had a petition requirement for parties that more than three parties have had full party status in Arkansas.

Arkansas also has a 1,000 signature requirement to get presidential tickets on the ballot with a party label. Americans Elect has already met this requirement this year, and Ballot Access News estimates that 4-5 more parties will qualify under this requirement.

Arkansas Times by way of Green Party Watch quotes Jim Lendall, a former Democratic state legislator who has run for Governor as a Green and remains active in the Green Party of Arkansas,

The Green Party of Arkansas just today qualified for the ballot after a difficult and expensive (time and money) petition effort [checks please?]. The filing period for candidates starts February 23 and goes to March 1.
Candidates chosen by the Green Party by convention have to file their papers of nomination by the time of the May 22 Preferential Primary (not the June 12 Primary). The big money parties have until 90 days before the GENERAL Election to file their papers of nomination. The law is unclear how the earlier deadlines affect new party Presidential candidates.
http://arkgreens.kk5.org/

In past elections, Arkansas has had some of the least competitive elections in the country, with about 80% of legislative seats unchallenged in some years – last among states in percentage of districts where voters had more than one choice in such contests.
A big part of the reason Arkansas Greens had vote totals for US Senate and US House that were higher than in other states was because many of those races don’t have both a Democrat and a Republican in the same race either.

Disclaimer: I petitioned for Arkansas Green Party ballot access in 2006, 2008 and 2010, and Arkansas Libertarian ballot access in 2008 (presidential) and 2012 (full party).

-paulie

Most people in the Palmetto State know Robby Wells as the former assistant football coach at the University of South Carolina and at South Carolina State. But his next challenge may be the most difficult to win.

Wells announced Monday morning he is running for president as an independent  and believes a vote for him is a vote for real change.

“It is time for Americans to move in a new, positive direction. It is time for America to elect a third party candidate for president.

Wells announced back in November his intent to run. He said he will represent the Constitution Party after being recruited by several small parties. He said he is tired of the back and fourth bickering between Republicans and Democrats.

Wells was previously running for the nomination of the Reform Party, but has switched to the Constitution Party–claiming he was “recruited”.

“When Ross Perot ran in 1992, there were two states that he came in second in the polls,” said state party organizer Jaime Dives. “One of those states was Maine and the other state was Utah.”

Dives is circulating petitions to get the Reform Party on the Utah ballot for the 2012 election cycle. She needs 2,000 signatures from registered voters by Feb. 15.

“We’re looking for people who want to sign up to be reform party members or people who want to be active in the party,” said Dives. “That will allow us to run our candidate on the election ballot in Utah. It will also give people the opportunity to register to vote as a reform party member.”

Despite Utahns voting primarily Republican, Dives said most Utah registered voters aren’t registered with a political party. “If you go to the lieutenant governor’s office and ask for the roll, you’ll see that there are more unaffiliated registered voters than there are Republicans and Democrats combined,” Dives said.

She believes this group is ready for an alternative to the perceived two-party system in America.

Collison says later in the article that although the Reform Party is in a rebuilding phase and aiming for fifty state ballots, she does not believe they can accomplish that in 2012.

Thank you for your support.
We are joining with others in this blackout to
protest SOPA and PIPA as a potential infringement
on the rights of all Americans.

The Reform Party is dedicated to upholding
the Constitution and is participating in a one day
Internet Blackout today Jan 18th, 2012.

This site will resume normal operations tomorrow, Jan 19th, 2012.

Among other sites participating in the blackout is wikipedia.

The US Pirate Party site has also been down for several days; I don’t know whether that is related to the protest or due to some other cause.

Webmaster Jonathan Gibbons for RJ Harris, a candidate for the Libertarian presidential nomination, provides the following editorial explaining the issue:

On the dangers of internet censorship and the power of the free market to combat it.

[ Image from Wikipedia ]

Wikipedia and many other website giants will be turning themselves off Wednesday, 18 Jan 2012, to show their opposition to the unconstitutional and anti-liberty SOPA and PIPA bills. The internet is one of the last beacons of freedom with limited regulation and a plethora of freely exchanged information. The internet provides a platform for freedom fighters around the world to express their opinions, rally activists and promote liberty. So powerful is its’ edification impact that its’ invention may indeed be more revolutionary than the invention of the printing press. The internet has become the greatest enemy of the tyrannical state the world has ever known.

If SOPA and PIPA pass, this could be what you see on your favorite libertarian website. Click image to enlarge.

SOPA and PIPA will essentially give the Federal Government incredible powers to infringe internet liberties. It grants the government unforgiving powers to confiscate websites, shut them down, and to force search engines such as Google to remove indexed websites from their queries. Sound familiar? It should, because this is the same power exercised by China when they block websites from the public. You may see an example of what could happen to a government seized website by checking out this link of a seized website or by clicking the image on the right. It isn’t bad enough that they may shut websites down, but they will pompously flaunt that they did with unnecessary “seized images” as well.

The two party system has failed. The Congress has failed. Our Presidents have failed. But the free market possesses a power greater than that of any state. It possesses a power to influence and rally a great many people through voluntary action; not through force. The free market is indeed “We the People” unhinged from corporatist control and the power to take away fundamental rights through the state.

Electing candidates like RJ Harris to political office, who understand the power of the free market to combat tyranny, will help to curb these continued grabs at complete totalitarianism by corrupt corporatist-republicrats.

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Disclaimer: The contents of this post do not necessarily represent the views of RJ Harris or the RJ Harris campaign. These are the opinions of the RJ Harris 2012 Webmaster, Jonathan Gibbons.

Ron Paul matches Romney’s performance against Obama, also trailing by 5 points at 47-42. Beyond those two Newt Gingrich trails by 7 at 49-42, Rick Santorum has an 8 point deficit at 50-42, and Rick Perry trails by 11 points at 51-40.
Stephen Colbert wants to run for President but he’s not on the ballot in South Carolina. Americans Elect is on the ballot in a lot of states but doesn’t have a candidate. Could Colbert and Americans Elect’s interests intersect? We find Colbert getting 13% in a hypothetical third party run for President, compared to 41% for Obama and 38% for Romney. A Colbert bid could be a blessing in disguise for the GOP. His voters go for Obama over Romney 52-38 in a straight head to head, so his presence as a potential candidate works to the Republicans’ advantage.

36% of voters have a favorable opinion of him to 28% with a negative one. His 36% favorability is better than the entire GOP field. Romney’s at 35%, Santorum at 30%, Paul at 27%, Gingrich at 26%, and Perry at 21%. Colbert’s popular with Democrats (47/21) and independents (43/26) but not with Republicans (18/39) despite his best efforts to run as one of their Presidential candidates.

In a more plausible third party scenario Gary Johnson gets 7% as the Libertarian candidate to 47% for Obama and 40% for Romney. His voters go 33-27 for Romney in a head to head so his bid is of slight benefit to Obama.

Full results here

As far as I know, Colbert has not announced any interest in the Americans Elect nomination, nor has there been any indication whether the group’s candidate credential committee would find him “acceptable.”

The results for Johnson, while far higher than anything the Libertarians have ever actually pulled in a presidential race, are not out of line with what hypothetical Libertarian tickets have polled at this stage in past cycles. For example, following his announcement, Rasmussen Reports had Barr polling at 6% nationwide; he ended up with 0.4% of the vote – and every Libertarian presidential ticket since 1984 has ended up between 0.3% and 0.5% in actual votes.

While the poll shows Johnson pulling slightly more from Romney, Johnson himself has repeatedly speculated in TV interviews that he might pull more votes away from Obama.

In an e-mail about the news, Wells writes:

I will be joining the Constitution Party tomorrow, and seeking their nomination. I have been an independent since I announced back in November. Since then, two parties have been recruiting me, and I have chosen the Constitution Party.

When asked if he would continue his run for the presidential nomination of the Reform Party, presumably the other party he mentions above, Wells says, “I am only seeking the nomination of the Constitution Party.”

Wells’s name was listed on the Reform Party website’s list of presidential candidates, but has since been removed. Only fitness model Andre Barnett and Earth Intelligence Network CEO Robert David Steele remain as candidates for the party’s nomination.

According to Politics1, in addition to Wells, other candidates seeking the Constitution Party presidential nomination include businessman J.L. Mealer, Tea Party activist Laurie Roth, and retired Navy commander Bill Tucker.

Former Republican Congressman Virgil Goode of Virginia is considered a potential candidate.

The Constitution Party National Convention will be held April 18-21 in Nashville, Tennessee.

Currently, the people who have signed up at Americans Elect thus far have chosen to “track” several politicians, which does not necessarily mean that they will support them for that party’s nomination, but it is the best approximation we have so far.

As of this writing, Ron Paul is the #1 choice, tracked by 7,768 people. President Obama is second, tracked by 5,014. Since most states don’t allow fusion, presumably Obama could not be the Americans Elect nominee. Close behind is Jon Huntsman, tracked by 4,938 and the object of recruiting efforts by some Americans Elect board members. However, Huntsman has said he will not run outside the GOP.

The next two most tracked political leaders are Bernie Sanders, at 2,548, and Buddy Roemer at 2,329.

Of these top five only Roemer has indicated any interest in the Americans Elect nomination.

If these support levels are any indication we may conclude that online voters may well have Ron Paul as their first choice for the nomination – an observation borne out by other places where people vote online.

However, there are at least two reasons why Ron Paul may not be the Americans Elect nominee even if the voters pick him to be:

1) He would have to express interest in the nomination around April or May, otherwise he would be eliminated before the last round of voting.

2) He could be eliminated by the candidate elimination committee. With members composed of Wall Street bankers, CFR members, and military-industrial and intelligence community members, many observers have expressed cynicism that Ron Paul would be found ideologically unacceptable.

Although there are no explicit rules about ideology that I know of, and in some places Americans Elect says they have no ideology, in others they say they seek to “bridge the vital center” of American politics. The only explicit rule about that which I know of is that the VP candidate can’t be the same party as the Presidential candidate.

Subject: PRESS ADVISORY: THIRD PARTY PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, ROBBY WELLS, WILL HOLD A PRESS CONFERENCE IN COLUMBIA, SC ON JANUARY 16, 2012 ANNOUNCING THAT HE IS JOINING A PARTY.
Date: Thu, 12 Jan 2012 16:53:52 -0500
From: robby@electrobbywells.com
To: info@electrobbywells.com

To whom it may concern,

Attached is a press advisory of the Third Party Presidential Candidate, Robby Wells, announcing his press conference in Columbia, SC on Monday, January 16 at 11:00am at the Hilton Columbia Center located at: 924 Senate St., Columbia, SC 29201.

Mr. Wells, an Independent Candidate, will announce his intentions of joining a party.

Robby Wells, a former college football coach, will bring strong leadership to the nation in a time when America needs a new, positive direction.

The Presidential Candidate’s most recent interview on FOX can be viewed at:www.myfoxorlando.com/dpp/news/politics/010312-3rd-party-presidential-candidate-robby-wells-visits-fox-35

His campaign web site can be viewed at: www.electrobbywells.com

Any questions can be answered at:
e-mail: info@electrobbywells.com
phone: (704)606-2859

Thank you,

Nicole Miller – Campaign Manager

Below is the text of the message:

Friends,

What a week!  I wanted to take just a few minutes from the busy campaign trail here in New Hampshire to let you know that we’ve had the best week of our campaign so far! Thanks to the support of you, and others like you all across the country, we’ve raised a record amount of $32,000 this past week.  The money donated has helped me continue my campaign in New Hampshire and air our first television commercials.

These past weeks in New Hampshire have been exciting.  Everywhere we go, I see the size and enthusiasm of the crowds and supporters growing considerably. On Saturday I held a press conference, where I heard chants of “Buddy! Buddy!” as I walked up to the podium, and I reiterated that I will continue to stand up to corruption in politics and the corrupting influence of money in politics.

The latest poll of Granite State voters shows I am a full two points ahead of former national frontrunner Rick Perry.  This is a huge milestone for the campaign, given the fact that I have not been included in a single debate thus far.  We also can’t forget that Perry has raised $17 million, with only 4% of his donations coming from small donors, and the remaining 96 percent coming from large donors and PACs.

My campaign is different, because as you know it is funded by supporters like you.  I take no money from PACs and I have a $100 maximum donation limit. You make my campaign possible, and therefore I thank you. 

We have so much more to look forward to on this campaign trail.  Keep up to date on where I am going and what I am up to at www.BuddyRoemer.com.  And if I am coming to a city near you, be sure to stop by and say hello!

Thank you for your continued support, and remember – this race is far from over.  It’s only just beginning.

Sincerely,

Buddy Roemer

During the last reporting period that ended September 30, the Roemer campaign reported a fundraising total of $231,532 with $46,111 on hand. In comparison, fellow candidate Gary Johnson, who was also running as a Republican at the time, announced totals of $416,431 with only $10,882 on hand.

Like Johnson, who decided to run for the Libertarian Party’s presidential nomination, Roemer announced in December that he would seek a third party’s nomination. He chose Americans Elect, an organization that hopes to nominate a nonpartisan political ticket for the 2012 election.  The group is currently on the ballot in 15 states.

Other candidates seeking the Americans Elect nomination include economics professor Laurence Kotlikoff and Green Party candidate Mike Ballantine.

Former Utah governor and current Republican Party candidate Jon Huntsman, Jr. was drafted to run, but decided against it.

The Michael Cavlan for US Senate campaign has just released their first campaign commercial. The commercial is available on youtube. No plans for broadcast TV ad buys were mentioned.

Cavlan is running for US Senate 2012 in Minnesota on the Minnesota Open Progressive ticket. His opponent will be Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat. The Minnesota GOP have not decided yet who they will run. At last report the Minnesota Independence Party, who are Minnesota’s third major party will not run anyone for Senate in the 2012 election.

The campaign also has a facebook page.

Cavlan is a frequent commenter here at IPR.

“I think I may be the first economist to run for president,” Kotlikoff said. “We see economists now running Greece and Italy. It’s not everyday that an economist decides to work this way for his country — but I’m one of those cases.”

Kotlikoff has never before run for public office. His goal is to secure a place on the 2012 ballot as an independent through a new online nomination site, AmericansElect.org.

The nonpartisan group, which has raised $22 million so far, aims to put an alternative candidate on the ballot, chosen by online voters through a three-stage primary.

Kotlikoff is promoting a Purple Plan, designed to appeal to both “Red” Republicans and “Blue” Democrats, as well as anyone between. Kotlikoff’s website can be found here.

In the e-mail McEnulty writes:

 Many people have asked me what I was going to do about the 2012 election and I’ve been struggling with an answer for some time now.  As you may remember, the basis for my campaign in 2008 was built around a platform of personal responsibility.  I truly believe that almost all problems in this country could have been avoided if more people took more personal responsibility.  In addition, I further believe that almost all problems we have can be solved by a return to a nation where everyone is much more responsible for their own actions.

The economy of the last few years has been tough on almost everyone and I am not an exception to that fact.  Things have been tough, but they are only starting to look a little better.  Hopefully they will continue to improve for everyone so that we can get this nation back on a good path for all Americans.

With this in mind I have come to the personally responsible conclusion that I need to continue to concentrate on my work and business at this time and will, therefore, not be running for President in the 2012 election.

However, I do believe I will be able to participate more fully in future years.   However, given that I don’t currently have a tax-payer supported position like most of the candidates (where they are allowed to not do their jobs and continue to get paid), I need to concentrate on what is best for my family and myself at this time.

Thank-you all for your support and I look forward to a run for the Presidency in 2016.

Sincerely,

Frank E. McEnulty

www.frankforpresident.org

Gatewood Galbraith, a perennial candidate for public office who advocated the legalization of marijuana and was one of the most colorful characters on Kentucky’s political landscape for three decades, died at his home in Lexington, the Fayette County coroner’s office said Wednesday. He was 64.

The cause of death was listed as complications from chronic emphysema.

Family members found Galbraith unresponsive in his bed Wednesday morning, the coroner’s office said in a statement.

“He had been sick for several days with congestion in his lungs (and) … had been suffering from cold-like symptoms which had been complicated by chronic asthma and emphysema,” the statement said.

Gatewood Galbraith ran for Governor of Kentucky five times: as a Democrat in 1991, 1995, and 2007, as a Reform Party candidate in 1999, and as an independent in 2011.  He earned 15% of the vote in his 1999 bid and 9% in 2011.