Bloomberg backers start draft effort
WASHINGTON - Supporters of a third-party presidential bid by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg launched a 50-state petition drive yesterday, seeking to "draft" the billionaire who appears to be edging closer to entering the race while continuing to deny he is a candidate.
WASHINGTON - Supporters of a third-party presidential bid by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg launched a 50-state petition drive yesterday, seeking to "draft" the billionaire who appears to be edging closer to entering the race while continuing to deny he is a candidate.
Gerald Rafshoon, former spokesman for President Jimmy Carter, and Doug Bailey, longtime Republican consultant, are not the first to launch an online petition drive for the mayor, but their move comes at the height of the primary campaign.
The two filed papers with the Federal Election Commission and the IRS to start the draft-Bloomberg effort. "He'd be a very unique candidate for a very unique time," Rafshoon said.
Bloomberg, 65, a Democrat who became a Republican who then became an independent, continues to maintain that he is not a candidate but has been polling and conducting a sophisticated voter analysis in every state.
- AP
Anti-Clinton group is held to campaign law
WASHINGTON - A conservative group must abide by campaign-finance laws if it wants to run ads promoting its anti-Hillary Rodham Clinton movie, a federal court ruled yesterday.
Citizens United had hoped to run the television advertisements in key election states during peak primary season. The court ruling means the group must either keep its ads off the air or attach a disclaimer and disclose its donors. Lawyers for the group had argued its 90-minute
Hillary: The Movie
was no different from documentaries seen on television news shows
60 Minutes
and
Nova.
Campaign regulations prohibit corporations and unions from paying for ads that run close to elections and that identify candidates. Citizens United argued that the advertisements promoted the movie and should be treated as commercial speech.
A three-judge panel disagreed, saying the film does not address legislative issues and was produced solely to try to influence citizens to vote against Clinton.
- AP
S.C.'s Clyburn reaffirms he won't endorse in primary
U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, the highest-ranking black politician in South Carolina, yesterday ruled out endorsing any candidate in the state's Democratic presidential primary Jan. 26.
"I'm not going to do any endorsements," he said at a news conference in Washington. "I think it's incumbent upon me to stay out of it because I would be breaking faith with too many people."
Clyburn had said he would stay neutral in the race, at least until after the Iowa caucuses, which were held earlier this month. His pledge then was intended to avoid giving an advantage to any candidate in exchange for the Democratic National Committee's agreement to allow South Carolina to be among early primary states. Clyburn is the third-ranking Democrat in the House.
- Bloomberg News