The internal rifts within the Republican party are getting more frequent and more serious. From an AP story in yesterday’s Statesman:

At least three Republican electors say they may not support their party’s presidential ticket when the Electoral College meets in December to formally elect the new president, escalating tensions within the GOP and adding a fresh layer of intrigue to the final weeks of the White House race.

Supporters of Ron Paul have expressed their frustration against the Republican Party’s refusal to give them a voice in their own party. The Associated Press reports: “’They’ve never given Ron Paul a fair shot, and I’m disgusted with that. I’d like to show them how disgusted I am,’ said Melinda Wadsley, an Iowa mother of three who was selected a Republican elector earlier this year. She said she believes Paul is the better choice and noted that the Electoral College was founded with the idea that electors wouldn’t just mimic the popular vote.”

The electors — all are supporters of former GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul — said they are exploring options should Mitt Romney win their states. 

One of the electors who is threatening to go rogue is from Texas. Her name is Billie Zimmerman, and she calls the RNC “a shocking display of deception and treachery and cheating.”

* * * *

And another report, this one from the Web site AllVoices.com, about how America could end up with a Republican president and Democrat for vice president:

This may seem like a far-fetched idea, but it is possible. As the rift within the Republican Party continues, this unexpected possibility is rearing its head. This may be the best chance our nation has to re-establish a sense of unity instead of allowing further division to continue to grow.

Supporters of Ron Paul have expressed their frustration against the Republican Party’s refusal to give them a voice in their own party. The Associated Press reports: “’They’ve never given Ron Paul a fair shot, and I’m disgusted with that. I’d like to show them how disgusted I am,’ said Melinda Wadsley, an Iowa mother of three who was selected a Republican elector earlier this year. She said she believes Paul is the better choice and noted that the Electoral College was founded with the idea that electors wouldn’t just mimic the popular vote.”

At least three electors for the Republican Party have expressed this sentiment. This raises some new concerns for the party as well as voters nationwide. At this time, no formal discussions have been held by Paul supporters on a national level.

So how would we end up with a Republican president and a vice president from the Democratic Party? If Romney or President Obama fail to receive the necessary Electoral College votes in December, it would force the House to determine who wins the presidency. If the House were to remain in the control of the Republican Party, they would most likely elect Romney. The Senate would then be called upon to elect the Vice President. If the Democrats maintain control over the Senate, they would most likely elect Joe Biden. This would leave America with a Republican president and a vice president who is a Democrat.

The Associated Press reports, “The last time multiple electors defected was in 1896, when William Jennings Bryan was the presidential candidate of both the Democratic Party and the People’s Party, with both parties choosing different vice presidential picks. Twenty-seven electors in that race chose the People’s Party ticket, even though it didn’t win the popular vote.”

Voters have always considered the votes cast by the electors as symbolic. However, laws are in place in approximately one half of the nation to require electors to cast their vote with their party, leaving the electors in remaining states with the power to cast their vote the way they choose. However, for example, the law in Nevada carries no punishment for failure to comply. This may leave America in a situation that would be extraordinary, to say the least.

Electors have started to speak out on this issue. Nevada’s electors are a unique group. Four of the six slots are filled by Ron Paul supporters. Jesse Law is one of them. The Associated Press reports: “Jesse Law, an elector and Paul supporter, said he may have qualms with Romney but has always intended to cast his electoral vote for the party nominee. ‘I just want to beat Obama,’ Law said. But Ken Eastman may not cast his Nevada electoral vote for Romney, if the former Massachusetts governor wins the state. Eastman said he wants to explore options with Republican leaders in Clark County, a group now dominated by Paul supporters. ‘I’m undecided at this point,’ Eastman said, adding that he’s ‘pretty disgusted’ with the national Republican Party and how it has worked to suppress Paul’s grassroots movement. He said the GOP has not been open to an influx of people with different ideas.”

Nevada’s Ken Searles expressed interest in casting his vote for Paul if it would not affect the final outcome of the election as a method of protest against his party. Billie Zimmerman, an elector from Texas, called the RNC a “shocking display of deception and treachery and cheating.” Zimmerman is undecided on how to cast her vote. Alaska’s Kathleen Miller has also expressed the possibility of casting a vote for Paul if it would not affect the final outcome of the election. Her vote would be cast in protest against leaders of the Republican Party’s “shenanigans.”

To win the election, a candidate must receive 270 of the 538 electoral votes. In 1825, the House selected John Quincy Adams when none of the candidates received the number of votes that were necessary. Electors have cast votes outside their party’s line in more recent history as well. In 2004, John Edwards received one elector vote in Minnesota. In 2000 an elector abstained in protest of what was perceived as a lack of congressional representation in their district.

As we rapidly approach the Presidential election of 2012, this new possibility will make voters stop to ponder the idea of a White House split between the parties. Although this possibility does not seem realistic, it leaves one wondering if this might be just exactly what our nation needs. If we have leaders setting the example of working together, it may set the bar for Americans nationwide.

Tagged: 2012

We interrupt your regular blogger to bring you a special message from the editor:

So it’s official. As of today, at 1:30 pm EST, Governor Perry is finally a formal candidate for president (though we’ve been convinced he had eyes on the job as far back as February 2010). The question has at long last gone from if/when to how? How will he run? We know he’ll run strong. Perry has never lost a race, something that neither his predecessor, nor the man he hopes will be his ultimate opponent in the 2012 campaign, can say. Most people in Texas would now agree that Perry is an extremely skilled campaigner. But there are 13 people, in particular, who know it in their bones. Who are they? Perry’s 13 vanquished opponents in his ten contested elections. For a feature entitled “The Great Campaigner” in the September issue (available online today), we interviewed these 13 candidates (0r, in a couple reticent cases, their staff) for a candid look at what it’s like to run against (and get beaten by) Governor Perry. It amounts to a fascinating oral history of Perry’s electoral march from unknown Democratic state rep to powerful governor and presidential candidate.

The art for this story deserves a little explanation too. It’s a riff on Boris Vallejo’s iconic 1983 movie poster for National Lampoon’s Vacation. The idea to put the governor in this pose had been on our minds since his pasting of Kay Bailey Hutchison in the 2010 Republican primary and his comfortable win over Bill White in the general election that followed. Like most ideas, it hatched and then followed us around for a while until the right time arrived. That time is now. So with apologies to Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann, and Barack Obama, and with condolences to the defeated, here’s the original movie poster, followed by the illustration created for our September issue by artist  Tyler Jacobson. Note the dead coyote and horned toad in the foreground. Details, people, details. (Also, a note to bloggers: Tyler’s illustration can be copied and pasted to your heart’s content.)

We now return you to your regular Burkablogger, senior executive editor Paul Burka.

-JAKE SILVERSTEIN

Boris Vallejo's 1983 movie poster

Tyler Jacobson's illustration for us

Tagged: 2012, barack obama, bill white, kay bailey hutchison, Michelle Bachman, mitt romney, presidential campaign, rick perry

Joshua Green, who writes and blogs about politics for the Atlantic and the Boston Globe, proposes that Jeb Bush should run for the Republican nomination:

Jeb Bush is the candidate hiding in plain sight. The brother and son of presidents stepped back from elected politics after his second term as Florida governor ended three year ago. At 57, he’s in his prime.

The knock on Jeb Bush begins and ends with his name. ”If he weren’t a Bush, he’d be an obvious top choice,” said conservative activist Grover Norquist. Widely presumed by the political cognoscenti to one day follow his father and win the White House, Jeb instead watched as his brother did so first, and then saw his own prospects laid to rest when George W. Bush became one of the least popular presidents in American history.

Bush … has a solid conservative record that wasn’t compiled in Washington and broad appeal in a critical state; for a party conspicuously lacking a positive agenda, he’s also known as an ideas guy. Bush hasn’t followed the Tea Partiers to the political fringes — he opposed Arizona’s racial profiling law, for instance — but neither has he ignored them. On Monday, he’ll appear at a Kentucky fundraiser for Tea Party favorite and GOP Senate nominee Rand Paul.

* * * *

The main reason Green’s argument is plausible is that the Republican pool is wide but shallow. Romney has amassed a large war chest, and he can make a case that his business experience is an important asset in troubled economic times. But the energy of the Republican party is with the tea party types, and Romney will never be their guy. Palin is a remarkable force; she can win the nomination but she is too polarizing to win the election. Gingrich is still carrying baggage from his failed speakership in the nineties. As for Jeb, he has shown no indication of interest. As Green points out, he has neither formed a PAC nor raised any money.

There is a dream scene in Oliver Stone’s W. that takes place in the Oval Office, in which Bush 41 says to Bush 43, “200 years of a family name and you [W.] ruined it!” Did he ruin it? W. has been out of office for a year and a half, and his favorable rating is up to 45% in a recent Gallup poll.

I don’t think that the Bush name would be much of a drawback in a Republican presidential primary. But you know it will be an inviting target in a general election.

Tagged: 2012, jeb bush

So says Ken Rudin, who writes NPR’s daily political blog, Political Junkie. Dismissing House and Senate Republicans, he focuses on governors as the future of the GOP. This narrowing of the list omits Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, and Newt Gingrich, among others. Here is his list:

1. Tim Pawlenty (MN)
2. Jon Huntsman (UT)
3. Haley Barbour (MS)
4. Bobby Jindal (LA)
5. Charlie Crist (FL)
6. Mitch Daniels (IN)
7. Sarah Palin (AK)
8. Rick Perry (TX)
9. Mark Sanford (SC)
10. Jodi Rell (CT)
11. Bob Riley (AL)
12. Sonny Perdue (GA)
13. Mike Rounds (SD)
14. John Hoeven (ND)
15. Butch Otter (ID)
16. Dave Heineman (NE)
17. Jim Douglas (VT)
18. Don Carcieri (RI)
19. Linda Lingle (HI)
20. Jan Brewer (AZ)
21. Arnold Schwarzenegger (CA)
22. Jim Gibbons (NV)

This is not exactly a list of giants.

1. Pawlenty is a solid governor who should have been McCain’s pick for vice president. His recent announcement that he would not seek reelection in 2010 is attributed to (choose one) the possibility that he could be defeated by a Democrat in a liberal state; or that he has made up his mind to run for president in 2012.

2. Huntsman, who speaks fluent Mandarin, is Obama’s nominee to be ambassador to China. He is a Mormon, a religious affiliation that was a disadvantage for Mitt Romney in 2008. Huntsman addressed the issue on Fox, in a 2006 interview with Neil Cavuto: “And people hear about Mormons, and they think, gosh, they are a different breed or culture. But, you know, we have five U.S. senators. We have 18 in the House of Representatives. We have some of the great CEOs in America. We are just normal people, like everybody else. And, for some reason or another, people mischaracterize us.”

3. Barbour is a shrewd politician and political operative — he’s a former tobacco lobbyist who looks the part — who knows his way around Washington. He has just inherited the chairmanship of the Republican Governors Association from the lovelorn Mark Sanford. Asked this morning by Face the Nation’s Bob Schieffer about whether he might run in 2012, Barbour said, “I don’t have any plan to. I don’t have any intention to. Right now, I think every Republican who wants to rebuild our party needs to be focused on elections of 2009 and ‘10. I mentioned the New Jersey and the Virginia governors’ races, both very competitive and very important. We have 37 governors’ races next year, plus the entire House of Representatives, a third of the Senate. I’m not going to give any thought to running for anything until after the 2010 election. I’d be very surprised if I ended up running for president, but I can’t just say flatly no. But I would be very surprised. My wife would be even more surprised.”

(more…)

Tagged: 2012, bobby jindal, charlie crist, gop governors, haley barbour, jon huntsman, mitch daniels, number 8, rick perry, sarah palin, tim pawlenty