Bloombeg in 2012?

Michael R. Bloomberg paid $45 million for a crisp, elegant town house at Madison Avenue and 78th Street to be the headquarters for the newly created Bloomberg Family Foundation. Mr. Bloomberg has purchased a second building for $41 million adjacent to the $45 million building on the Upper East Side to house the new foundation. His office says the buildings will undergo renovations and be connected internally.

There has been a lot of recent talk about New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg thinking about a run for President in 2012, if the conditions are right.

Mr. Bloomberg created a foundation in 2006, vowing to give away most, if not all, of his wealth — estimated at $16 billion at the time. There is a heavy political cast to the foundation board Mr. Bloomberg announced. Among those appointed are Henry M. Paulson Jr., former Treasury secretary; Jeb Bush, former governor of Florida; Manny Diaz, former mayor of Miami; Cory A. Booker, mayor of Newark; and Sam Nunn, former senator from Georgia.

Since 2006, many political operatives have taken up offices at the foundation. A top NY political consultant on Team Bloomberg has said “Bloomberg wants to run.” Of course under normal circumstances an independent candidacy wouldn’t have much of a chance at all, but these are not normal times, and you already know the rest of the sentence, Bloomberg is not a normal politician.

I always thought it would be difficult for an independent candidate to get into the White House directly. We would need more independents in Congress first to make this happen.

What do you think?

Michael H. Drucker
Technorati Tag in Del.icio.us

Black America Going Independent

Dr. Lenora Fulani, a founder of the NY Independence Party, celebrated the 20th anniversary of her historic 1988 run for president when she became the first African American and first woman to get on the ballot in all 50 states. Fulani shared Double Dutch chocolate cake wtih friends and supporters at Harlem Day.

Michael H. Drucker
Technorati Tag in Del.icio.us

An Open Debate in NYC

Trevor Lyman is the man who organized the Ron Paul money bombs. One Lyman money bomb raised $4 million in one day. Another raised $6 million in one day.

Now, Lyman is at it again. Lyman wants to hold a third party debate in New York City. Lyman was inspired by Ron Paul's press conference a couple of weeks ago. At that press conference, Paul called on his followers to ditch the two major parties and throw their support to one of the independent or third party candidates.

If Lyman gets 10,000 pledges by October 8, he and the other sponsors will organize a debate in New York City. All major candidates -- Nader, Barr, McKinney, Baldwin, Obama and McCain will be invited. Already, with no publicity, Lyman has close to 1,000 pledgers.

Use the above link for want more information and make a pledge.

Michael H. Drucker
Technorati Tag in Del.icio.us

Ron Paul urges third-party vote

Texas Congressman Ron Paul is to urge voters to reject Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain and vote for a third-party US candidate instead.

Dr Paul, who dropped his own bid for the Republican nomination earlier this year, has a big internet following. He is backing independent Ralph Nader, Libertarian Bob Barr, Constitution Party contender Chuck Baldwin and Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney, a former Democratic congresswoman for Georgia.

"The strongest message can be sent by rejecting the two-party system," he will tell a Washington news conference. "This can be accomplished by voting for one of the non-establishment, principled candidates."

According to an advance copy of Dr Paul's remarks, he will say the mainstream parties have no major differences on important issues, such as balancing the budget and civil liberties.

Mr Nader is quoted by the Associated Press as saying the gathering of third-party candidates would "raise the eyebrows" of commentators sceptical about their chances in November's presidential election. "This is the beginning of the realignment of American politics," he told the AP.

There was one empty chair next to the other candidates, set aside for former Republican Rep. Bob Barr of Georgia. Barr is the Libertarian Party's candidate, and he decided to hold his own conference immediately after the unity event.

Barr told the audience at his press conference, "I'm not interested in third parties getting the most possible votes. I'm interested in Bob Barr as the nominee for the Libertarian Party getting the most possible votes."

Michael H. Drucker
Technorati Tag in Del.icio.us

IPNY Still to Pick Presidential Candidate

Thanks to Richard Winger of Ballot Access News for this one:

"The New York Independence Party has a tradition of choosing its presidential nominee at the last possible moment. In 2000, it chose John Hagelin on September 24. In 2004, it chose Ralph Nader on September 26.

State chair Frank MacKay says this tradition will continue this year. The most likely date for the party to choose its presidential candidate is September 21, a Sunday.

New York state is able to cope with late decisions because it uses mechanical voting machines. One advantage of mechanical voting machines is that they can be easily and quickly set up. Elections officials don’t need to print entire ballots; they merely must print up narrow strips of paper which are inserted into the right slots on the face of the machines. However, New York will be giving up its mechanical voting machines after the November 2008 election, since the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) outlawed them."

Michael H. Drucker
Technorati Tag in Del.icio.us

Puerto Rico to Hold Democratic Primary

Seizing on a rare opportunity to influence U.S. politics, Puerto Rico's Democratic Party has chosen to hold a presidential primary instead of a caucus to encourage more islanders to participate in the June 1 contest, an official said Friday.

Roberto Prats, party chairman in the U.S. territory, said the switch approved Thursday by the central committee will put pressure on Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama to campaign in the Caribbean island.

Michael H. Drucker
Technorati Tag in Del.icio.us

Bloomberg Not Running

"I believe that an independent approach to these issues is essential to governing our nation — and that an independent can win the presidency. I listened carefully to those who encouraged me to run, but I am not — and will not be — a candidate for president. I have watched this campaign unfold, and I am hopeful that the current campaigns can rise to the challenge by offering truly independent leadership. The most productive role that I can serve is to push them forward, by using the means at my disposal to promote a real and honest debate." Michael R. Bloomberg is the mayor of New York.

Use the above link to read the Op-Ed in the New York Times.

Could he be a VP or Cabinet Secretary?

Michael H. Drucker
Technorati Tag in Del.icio.us

Grassroots 2008

I was watching a C-SPAN conference about the 2008 Presidential campaigning. The panel indicated this is a grassroots year and maybe the last year of top-down politics. They spoke about how Obama using web 2.0 tools has given the grassroot a way to use their power to affect this election. One of the most effective has been the Caucuses. They explained how he has put 150,000 grassroot voters on the ground in Texas. The web 2.0 tools has created both the money effort but just as important the way to organize and give the grassroots a voice. Thet discussed how Obama understood how to energize the grassroot voter and Clinton ignored it and this would be the major blunder of 2008.

What are your thoughts about Grassroot 2008.

"I've just never understood why, just because you're a member of a party, you have special rights. That's not the civics that I learned in junior high school, and if Ralph Nader wants to run, good luck to him." - Mayor Bloomberg

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has added more fuel to the fire with his latest comments in regards to Ralph Nader's announcement on Sunday that he is running for president. Bloomberg declared there's no such thing as a spoiler and said time is running out for third-party contenders to get into the race.

"This business of Ralph Nader being a spoiler -- you know, in any three-way race, two of the three are going to be spoilers," Bloomberg said. "Come on. Everybody's got a right to do it -- you're not spoiling anything."

"If people want to vote for you, let them vote for you, and why shouldn't they?" he added.

Michael H. Drucker
Technorati Tag in Del.icio.us

Nader Launches Presidential Bid

Ralph Nader today threw his hat into the 2008 Presidential ring. Nader announced his candidacy on NBC’s Meet the Press with Tim Russert.

I worked on his last campaign. But I think he would be a better advisor for organizing the new youth of the Obama wave in the issues of the 21st Century.

Use the above link for his website.

Michael H. Drucker
Technorati Tag in Del.icio.us

Bloomberg's Independence Primer

This week TIME spoke with ballot access expert Clayton Mulford, who ran both of Ross Perot's Independent candidacies as campaign manager and principle spokesperson in 1992 and as general counsel in 1996. Mulford, a 51-year-old corporate security lawyer and Director of Peerless Manufacturing Co., more recently has been working with the National Math and Science Initiative, a nonprofit education organization geared at expanding school programs in those areas. On Friday, January 18 in Austin, Texas, he met with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Use the above link to read the entire article.

Michael H. Drucker
Technorati Tag in Del.icio.us

Fringe Presidential Candidates

Senior Editor Nathan Thornburgh of Times traveled to New Hampshire recently to meet with some truly unique presidential candidates.

Use the above link to view the video.

Michael H. Drucker
Technorati Tag in Del.icio.us

Hillary has company

This is from the Transported Newsletter.

"Hillary Clinton is boldly running for President in 2008, and the thought may seem unusual, since we've never had a woman President. We have, however, had a President election with a woman on the ballot before - 13 elections, in fact! Here's a look at some of the more notable cases of this phenomena, and why Clinton may just have a chance.

Dr. Lenora Fulani - ran for the New Alliance Party in 1988. She is a developmental psychologist and psychotherapist. She is perhaps the most successful female Presidential candidate so far. She is both the first woman and the first African-American to achieve a spot on the ballot in all fifty states, and she pulled a record number of votes for a female candidate, at 217,219. She ran again in 1992 for the same party, but didn't do as well. In 1993, she joined with activists rallying around Ross Perot, to get an alternative voting platform going."

Use the above link to read the entire article.

Michael H. Drucker
Technorati Tag in Del.icio.us