A moment of silence, please, for the end of the Buddy Roemer for President campaign.
Today, I am no longer a candidate for President of the United States.
After 17 months of a wonderful campaign, the lack of ballot access in all 50 states makes the quest impossible for now.
I still don’t know how I got on his press distribution list, but I figured I had to share that. Roemer was on the ballot on Tuesday for the Republican primary in Texas. He received 4,704 votes, for 0.32%, and finished slightly ahead of John Davis, whom you also didn’t know was running for President. Other now-former candidates on the ballot included Rick Santorum (114,973 votes, 7.96%), Newt Gingrich (67,888 votes, 4.70%), Michelle Bachmann (12,327 votes, 0.85%), and even Jon Huntsman (9,507 votes, 0.65%). Notice who’s missing from that list?
Still keeping hope alive
Gingrich and Santorum were still on the Texas ballot Tuesday, as well as others who had long ago exited the race, including Michele Bachmann and Jon Huntsman. But the name Texans would know best — Gov. Rick Perry — was not.
Perry took advantage of a brief window that reopened in March, when the primary date was moved, to remove his name from the ballot, according to Chris Elam, spokesman for the Texas GOP.
That, political observers say, was a masterstroke after a mistake-prone campaign. Perry ended his candidacy Jan. 19.
“That was a wise thing,” said former U.S. Rep. Martin Frost, D-Dallas. “He didn’t want to be embarrassed in his home state.”
[UT political science professor Bruce] Buchanan said, “I think it was smart of Perry to get off the ballot. People will now have to conjure the memory of his flameout on their own.”
So there you have it. Be that as it may, Buddy Roemer can always say that he got more votes in Texas than Rick Perry did. I hope that provides him some comfort.
After Buddy announced he was out I saw Rocky Anderson’s open letter to Buddy. Campaign finance reform is my biggest issue and now it seems Rocky is the only candidate in the field really pushing this. His letter is here:
http://www.voterocky.org/a_letter_to_buddy_roemer