Ron Paul's House Seat in Danger--Will He Run for President as a Libertarian?
Move over, Ralph Nader. Here's a scenario which may put Ron Paul in the presidential race.
March 4 may be a decisive ballot day in Texas and Ohio for Clinton and Obama, but it will also decide the political futures of Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich. They both face serious primary challengers for their House seats.
The usually underfunded Kucinich has done quite well in his money primary this time. Kucinich’s top opponent is Joe Cimperman, a Cleveland councilman endorsed by Cleveland's Mayor and the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper. Cimperman’s issue? Kucinich as an absentee congressman with no major legislative initiatives in his 12-year House career. But for the first time in his 30 year political life, Kucinich is the top-dog in fundraising.
Since dropping out of the Presidential race Kucinich raised nearly $700,000 to hold onto his seat. In fact, his total fund-raising of $735,000, is the most he has collected. Cimperman reported total contributions of $487,000, a little over half which was raised this year.
Meanwhile, Ron Paul seems to be running behind his primary opponents. Paul showed creative and highly successful fundraising skills in his Presidential campaign, but Pajamas Media reports that internal polling by both Paul and his competitor, Chris Peden, shows Peden with a double-digit lead over Paul. Congressman Paul has fallen behind by over ten points(43%-32%).Peden’s rap on Paul is that he’s not a “Republican†and does not support the war in Iraq, which his constituents apparently have not noticed until the debates this cycle.
What if Paul gets the Texas boot? He just might show up on some Libertarian ballots in the fall. He pledged not to run on a 3rd party ticket, but he may feel differently if ousted from Congress. He's run as a Lib before, and he does have $8 million (and counting) to spend. Stranger things have happened already in this election.
This is crap
Where are you getting this crap?
He polls 60% while Peden polls 20%
and he's raised $1M
Peden has what he loaned himself.
Follow the link to the
Follow the link to the source and polls. Supply other links if you have them for folks to check.
Mark Elam Says:
Mark Elam Says:
February 20th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
I hate to dash the spirits of what few Peden supporters exist out there, but the desperate propaganda being promoted by the Peden campaign is no where near reality. Peden is NOT leading Dr. Paul in this race. In fact, most voters still don’t even know who Peden is. How do I know this? Because I am Ron Paul’s campaign manager and I have personally overseen 4 different political surveys in District 14 in recent weeks. All 4 surveys have shown the same results: Ron Paul has a high favorable rating and high marks on his job approval. And if the election were held today, 60+ percent of the GOP voters say they would vote to reelect Ron Paul, while only 18-20% chose Peden. The remaining 20% or so say they are undecided or refuse to give an answer to these scientific and statistically accurate surveys.
For those who follow the Ron Paul congressional campaigns you will remember that Shane Sklar, Dr. Paul’s Democrat opponent pulled this same kind of deceptive game toward the end of his campaign last year, putting out press statements saying he had polls claiming his was tied with or even ahead of Ron Paul.
For example:
Burnt Orange Report::: TX-14: Shane Sklar Can Beat Ron Paul
Shane Sklar leads Ron Paul 54-30% in an informed Congressional vote.
And let me see now…Sklar got beat by Ron Paul by how much? This press clip may jog your memory of the election outcome…
Ron Paul …. defeated Democratic rancher Shane Sklar with 60 percent of the vote. …
So, those of you who believe Peden’s supposed lead in the polls should really place some bets on this one…BIG bets. And then when Peden, who is still virtually unknown to the voters and has almost no money in his campaign, (other than what he has loaned himself) loses the election and you lose a lot of money…then, maybe, reality might become a little more clear.
Just presenting the facts to help provide a little political reality check.
Oh, and BTW, Ron Paul can not and will not access money he has raised for his presidential race for use in his congressional campaign. It is not allowed under federal election rules. But then again, he doesn’t need to, because his congressional campaign has raised over $1 million dollars over the past two weeks. Check it out at:
www.RonPaulforCongress.com
In addition to our regular surveys, these number are verified by our voter ID calls to all CD14 GOP voters. Here’s the latest report.
NOT VOTING 166 5.4%
PAUL 1,887 61.3%
PEDEN 616 20.0%
UNDECIDED 410 13.3%
3,079 37.6%
Sincerely,
Mark Elam
Campaign Manager,
Committee to Reelect Ron Paul
http://corner.nationalreview.
These are the REAL numbers. Not the made-up stuff from Pajamas Media (citing the same source that told them on Feb. 13 that Paul was dropping out of the race very soon to spend his presidential money on his congressional reelection, which has obviously not happened).
I cannot believe how stupid the media is. Do they really trust these numbers from Pajamas Media? Peden in the chat transcript didn't even sound like he trusted them.
Paul will win and win easily. Stupid media.
successful fundraising
http://www.ronpaulforcongress.com/
Paul & Kucinich
Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich will crush their opponents in their Congressional districts and both will easily win re-election. Why would the 10th and 14th give up on two high profile US Representatives, both of whom most accurately represent the principled wings of their respective party, for two no-name no influence ward-healing local political hacks in Peden and Cimperman.
This is an example of wishful thinking trumping journalism.