REVEALED: GOP Elites Launching Third Party Candidate to Take Down Trump

14 Jun, 2016 by Sierra Marlee

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It would appear the conservatives are gearing up to offer the RNC an alternative to Donald Trump as the Republican Presidential nominee. Whether this is a wise decision or a foolish one has yet to be decided, but one thing is for sure… it will be interesting.

From The New York Times:

A conservative donor who has been scouring Republican ranks for a third-party candidate is pressing ahead with a group to get on the ballot in dozens of states. The candidate will come once the group sees that the ballot access is possible.

The donor, John Kingston, a bundler and ally of Mitt Romney, said he will bankroll a ballot-access project to create a path for someone to run as another option. The effort is being called Better for America.

The idea is “to do a proof of concept for everybody,” Mr. Kingston said. “It exists, there is a pathway, there is a road that you can be going down.”

The Massachusetts man was heavily involved in efforts led by the Weekly Standard editor William Kristol to find a challenger to both Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump for a third-party line. His approach is similar to one used by a group, Americans Elect, in 1992, when it tried creating a ballot line unattached to a major party.

Better for America has Mr. Kingston working with the pollster Joel Searby as the chief strategist, as well as the lawyers Mohammad Jazil and Matthew Sawyer. Mr. Sawyer was the general counsel for the Texas business magnate H. Ross Perot’s Reform Party presidential run in 1996. Anne MacDonald, who was the chief of staff to the first lady Laura Bush, is also advising the group.

Members of the group said the project gives a shot at getting on the ballot almost everywhere, even with deadlines to do so having passed for Texas and North Carolina.

This week is crucial because a number of the states’ ballot access deadlines are due.

“On the ballot access side of this we’re all heads down and focusing on this as much as we can,” Mr. Sawyer said.