Thinking of running in the primaries? Best rush on collecting those signatures or scraping that filing fee together. Today is the last day to file in person to get on to the March 4 ballot (if you’re mailing it in, it’s got until Friday to get to the party.)
As of New Year’s Eve, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, and John McCain have all filed for the Republican presidential race. Meanwhile, over on the Democratic side of the street, the big three – John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama – got their letters signed, sealed and delivered.
But what about life in single digits?
GOPers Duncan “But I won the non-binding straw poll” Hunter and Alan Keyes have got their paperwork, joined by a couple of equally likely near-invisible candidates – Houston’s Hoa Tran and conservative traditionalist from Alabama Hugh Cort. Seemingly, so far, no sign that Fred Thompson is that bothered about those 444 Texas delegates.
There’s a handful of lower-ranked Dems, with Bill Richardson, Joe Biden and Chris Dodd all in. But don’t count them out as being competitive. Of course, for one of them to snag the big nomination would take a reversal of the cosmic order. But there’s still the vice-presidency to fill, and it’s getting increasingly hard to imagine any of the top candidates on either side sitting comfortably with each other in the Oval Office.
This article appears in December 28 • 2007.
