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.