Anti-Trump effort continuing in GOP

Group seeks independent candidate

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, shown in 2013, has been seen by some Republicans disenchanted with Donald Trump’s candidacy as a possible independent presidential candidate.
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, shown in 2013, has been seen by some Republicans disenchanted with Donald Trump’s candidacy as a possible independent presidential candidate.

A band of Republicans -- including 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney, a handful of veteran consultants and members of the conservative intelligentsia -- is working to draft an independent presidential candidate who could keep Donald Trump from the White House.

RELATED ARTICLE

http://www.arkansas…">GOP's gathering elects 25 for convention duty

photo

AP

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., speaks at a press conference during the Republican Party of Wisconsin 2016 State Convention at the KI Convention Center in Green Bay, Wis., on Saturday.

These GOP figures are commissioning private polling, lining up funding sources and courting potential contenders, according to interviews with more than a dozen Republicans involved in the discussions. The effort has been sporadic all spring but has intensified since Trump effectively locked up the Republican nomination on May 3.

Those involved concede that an independent campaign at this late stage is probably futile, and they think they have only a couple of weeks to launch a credible bid. But these Republicans -- including commentators William Kristol and Erick Erickson and strategists Mike Murphy, Stuart Stevens and Rick Wilson -- have said they are so opposed to the prospect of Trump as commander in chief that they are desperate to take action.

In addition to considering mainstream politicians, the recruiters also delved into the world of reality television for someone they believe might out-Trump Trump: Mark Cuban, the businessman and owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team.

Again and again, though, the prospective anti-Trump Republicans have heard the same response: Thanks, but no thanks.

"I don't see it happening," Cuban wrote in an email.

Cuban co-hosts Shark Tank, the ABC reality series in which entrepreneurs pitch investors about their business ideas. He said his pursuers -- he declined to name them -- have told him that his "bluster and volume, combined with substance and the ability to connect with voters on a more personal basis," could make him a winning candidate.

"He could come after me all he wanted, and he knows I would put him in his place," Cuban said of Trump. "All that said, again, I don't see it happening. There isn't enough time."

To many political professionals, the notion of winning the presidency from outside the two-party system is pure fantasy. Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg spent time and money studying his chances for an independent run only to conclude in March that there was no plausible path.

Further tempering the talks on the right are fears that an independent conservative candidate could become a pariah by splintering the Republican vote and ensuring victory for the Democratic nominee.

"The career of the individual would come to an end, and he would have a difficult spot in history for being responsible for putting Hillary Clinton in the White House," said Patrick Buchanan, a conservative who ran for president in 2000 on the Reform Party ticket.

Buchanan was dismissive of the current efforts.

"These are the mice trying to bell the cat -- only they can't get one mouse to go out and do it," he said.

There are logistical hurdles. The deadline to get on the ballot in Texas, which has the second-largest trove of electoral votes, already passed, but organizers said they think a legal challenge there could be successful. Other state deadlines are fast approaching, and many require petitions with thousands of signatures.

Some anti-Trump Republicans are downsizing their ambitions to a more focused, state-specific effort. Murphy, who ran a super political action committee for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in his failed 2016 bid, is pushing one such proposal. Murphy envisions an independent candidate on what he termed "an honorable mission" in Colorado, New Hampshire and Ohio -- three battleground states with relatively lax ballot-access rules.

"Running an anti-Trump protest candidate in a handful of swing states really appeals to me," Murphy said. "You could deny Trump the presidency and perhaps help important Senate and other down-ballot races by giving another choice to Republican voters who abhor Hillary Clinton and can't cross the moral line to vote for Trump."

One related objective is to prevent both Clinton and Trump from clinching a majority in the Electoral College and thus throwing the presidential election to the House of Representatives, under the provision of the 12th Amendment of the Constitution. This scenario played out in 1824, when Andrew Jackson won a plurality of electoral and popular votes but was defeated in the House by John Quincy Adams.

Whether wealthy donors would fund a candidate with such long odds is unclear. Dan Senor, a former Romney adviser and a confidant of House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has been informally briefing high-level GOP donors opposed to Trump on how an independent campaign might work and has found them to be willing to invest if the right candidate stepped forward, according to people involved.

A Section on 05/15/2016

Upcoming Events