By Ashley Portero: Subscribe to Ashley's RSS feed
December 1, 2011 4:41 PM EST
You may not recognize him from magazine covers or series of highly-publicized gaffes, but former Gov. Buddy Roemer is running for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.
On the surface, Roemer seems to have everything a GOP voter would look for in a candidate: He served four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, as well as a term as the governor of Louisiana before spending years in the private sector as an investor and banker. Roemer is a Harvard-educated economist who pushes an agenda of strong financial management, reforming the tax code, strengthening national defense and repealing the U.S. Affordable Care Act.
However, Roemer also has several things working against him in a Republican race that only seems to reward extreme conservatism, while demonizing candidates that have made any statement or policy decision that could be construed as agreeing with a Democratic platform. For instance, while he has a long record of advocating a reduction in federal spending, he himself was a registered Democrat until the last year of his term as governor in 1991, a sudden switch that many say was a contributing factor to Roemer's defeat during his gubernatorial reelection campaign.
Moreover, Roemer is a shrewd critic of the current campaign finance system that allows political candidates to receive huge campaign contributions from corporations, often resulting in a symbiotic relationship where those two entities make decisions to benefit one another. Roemer's Web site states "campaign finance reform and ending unlimited Super PAC campaign contributions made possible by Citizen's United ruling are critical to battling this problem," something Roemer has taken to heart in his own campaign: he has limited campaign contributions for his presidential bid to $100 per person.
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As a result of this, and several other positions that do not exactly comply with the mainstream-Republican message, Roemer has been ignored this election cycle and banned from the GOP debates that seem to occur every other week. However, his campaign may have been revived on Wednesday, when he announced he would seek the third-party Americans Elect nomination for the presidency, immediately fueling rumors that Roemer, if he ran on that ticket, could siphon votes from both President Barack Obama and the eventual GOP nominee in 2012.
Americans Elect is an organization allowing American voters to participate in an alternative nominating process via the internet to nominate a nonpartisan presidential ticket that ideally answers to voters instead of the political establishment. The Web site must receive 3 million signatures to get ballot access in all 50 states -- as of Dec. 1 it had over 2.1 million -- but has reportedly already gained ballot status in several states, including Arizona, Kansas, Florida, Ohio and Michigan.
Roemer started to get even more buzz earlier this week when he indicated Independent Sen. Joe Liebermann, I-Conn., would be his ideal running mate. While Liebermann soon shot down that idea, saying that his presidential venture with former Vice President Al Gore in 2000 would be his last, Roemer's willingness to take on a running mate from a different political party may have opened him up to a whole new audience of moderate voters. The best part is, he isn't ashamed to advertise his propensity for bipartisanship, even on the mecca of GOP programming, Fox News.
Bipartisan Stance
"Well, I'm a Republican and a proud Republican. But I'm a prouder American," Roemer said in response to a question from reporter Neil Cavuto on Tuesday, after Cavuto questioned him about possibly acquiring a Democratic running mate.
In the same interview -- as he has acknowledged in many others -- Roemer lamented that he has not been invited to participate in a single Republican debate.
"I have actually balanced the budget. I have actually done tax reform. We took unemployment in Louisiana down from 12 percent down to below 6 percent. These things can be done. But you start with the corruption. And I don't guess the powers that be in my own party want to hear that message," Roemer said, describing how his accomplishments are obviously proof that he deserves as much air-time as some of his less-qualified GOP rivals.
While he prescribes to several principles that are undoubtedly conservative -- he does not support amnesty for undocumented immigrants and has voiced his support for the Defense of Marriage Act -- he has also taken stances that are appealing to even liberal Democrats. Earlier this month, he became the only Republican hopeful to visit an Occupy encampment when he met with Occupy D.C. protesters to discuss their grievances.
"You must be a Democrat, you're actually talking to us," one of demonstrators said after, according to The Times-Picayune. The Huffington Post reports that even when Roemer was called out for his own work in the banking industry he pleasantly responded to the accusations.
"I told the other Republican candidates, 'Listen, listen -- they're [the Occupy protesters] saying something we oughta hear. They're saying that the few at the top gets the best of America, and everybody [else] gets what's left over,'" Roemer told The Huffington Post.
Roemer's name has barely showed up in any national polls, but according to a recent poll from American Research Group, he may be gaining some ground in the mega-swing state of Florida. Granted not much -- about 1 percent of likely Republican primary voters said they would cast their ballot for Roemer, while 50 percent said they would vote for Gingrich. However, both Rep. Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum -- who barely make a presence on most national polls these days -- also received only 1 percent of likely voters, while both Rep. Ron Paul and Gov. Rick Perry only received 2 percent a piece.
There is one major drawback to Roemer's possible third-party bid through Americans Elect -- Americans Elect itself. Mother Jones reports there are serious questions as to who is actually funding the political reform operation. Campaign watchdogs have reportedly questioned the group's lack of transparency since it changed its tax status from a tax-exempt 527 group to a 501(c)(4) social-welfare organization, reportedly exempting Americans Elect from publicly disclosing its donors. The source reports that dark money outfits typically change their tax status to a 501(c)(4) classification.
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