Third Party Watch

Here’s what Bradley Smith wrote:

We can’t help but note the plight of Unity08, now on its deathbed. The culprit: campaign finance laws. [...]

And in this enterprise of raising start-up cash, Unity08 was stymied by the Federal Election Commission, which really had no choice – the law plainly limited contributions to Unity08. After McCain-Feingold, [...]

Crazy for Liberty is reporting that he got an e-mail with this text:

Draft Bloomberg Committee Launches Petition
Petition widget available for bloggers to easily publish on their site WidgetImage2

If you believe Mike Bloomberg should run for president, then now is the time to tell him!

America needs and deserves a president with vision and a proven track [...]

Here’s the text of the e-mail Unity08 just sent out. It pretty much confirms the rumors we’ve been hearing and what we just reported.

One of our principles at the outset of this audacious project was transparency and openness. Too often in our recent political history, what you see has not been what you [...]

That’s the allegation, at least. Elizabeth Benjamin writes:

A source familiar with the Bloomberg for president movement says the bipartisan Unity08 effort is poised to shut down its Web site, reconstitute as a Draft Bloomberg site and launch its own 50-state signature-gathering operation on behalf of the supposedly reluctant would-be independent presidential candidate.

This move has [...]

Here are a few quick sound bytes pertaining to a possible presidential bid by Mike Bloomberg:

David Broder@WaPo:

New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, a potential independent candidate for president, has scheduled a meeting next week with a dozen leading Democrats and Republicans, who will join him in challenging the major-party contenders to spell out their plans [...]

According to this source, former Alaskan U.S. Senator and current contender for the Democratic nomination Mike Gravel may be considering an independent or third party campaign.

The Rev. Robert A. Vinciguerra writes:

“Hold out your hand, take your thumb and connect it to your little finger. What do you get,” Gravel asked his on looking audience. “A [...]

The editorial page of the New York Sun is speculating that Joe Lieberman’s endorsement of John McCain may hurt a possible independent presidential bid by Michael Bloomberg.

Senator Lieberman’s decision to flash his famous independent streak by crossing party lines and endorsing Senator McCain for president might seem to take some wind out of the [...]

Unity 08 is pushing for people to write Op-Ed’s. From their latest e-mail:

For this 10 Minute Tuesday, get your own Op-Ed published! In your Op-Ed we’d like for you to answer the question, “Why do we need a Unity Ticket in 2008?” Write an article that tells us an interesting personal story about why [...]

This is a pretty effective summary of the Unity08 project by co-founder Doug Bailey. A Republican activist and consultant, Doug Bailey was the original founder of The Hotline.

The Unity’08 project has relaunched their website with all sorts of new tools and such. It appears that they’re trying to incorporate more interactivity into things, and to add a social networking element to help develop their community of activists and supporters.

Members of the site can complete activites and try to earn points of [...]

Third Party Watch: Can you tell me a little bit of general background information about the Unity08 project?

Bob Bingham: Unity08 is a movement to renew our independence from the polarized politics in Washington. Unity08 will put forth a unity ticket of a Republican/Democrat/independent with a running mate from another party on the ballot in all [...]