Earlier this week, I wrote about a “what if” election scenario: What if Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich, who had competed at the same time for, respectively, the Republican and Democratic presidential nomination, had instead run together on a presidential ticket? After my article was published, I was informed that Ron Paul supporting radio interviewer Scott Horton had, in an August of 2012 speech, laid out a case for Paul and Kucinich running together.
In that speech, presented after Mitt Romney and Barack Obama appeared set to be the Republican and Democratic presidential nominees, Horton proposed that, instead of throwing in the towel, Paul and Kucinich run together on a presidential ticket. Horton advocated in the speech for Paul to “keep running.” In particular, Horton suggested that Paul “get Dennis Kucinich or another principled progressive as your running mate and run a bipartisan unification campaign bringing together the best of the left and the right around your libertarian platform of peace, the Bill of Rights, and an end to all bailouts and corporate welfare.”
Check out Horton’s speech here:
One practical matter Horton did not address in the speech was how ballot access laws would affect the campaign he suggested. Ballot access laws are heavily stacked against third party and independent presidential candidates even when they have their campaigns up and running a year or more before election day. The barriers to having such a ticket on the ballot are yet stronger when a campaign is begun a little over two months before election day.
