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Talk about outrageous. On Friday, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson issued a list of presidential candidates whose names will appear on the state’s primary ballot. The list included eighteen Democratic candidates and four Republicans.
The four Republicans are President Trump and challengers William Weld, a former governor of Massachusetts, ex-South Carolina governor and congressman Mark Sanford and Joe Walsh, a former Tea Party congressman and radio talk show host from Illinois.
Benson, a Democrat who took office earlier this year, inexplicably excluded San Diego businessman Rocky De La Fuente, the only prominent Hispanic seeking the Republican presidential nomination and arguably one of Trump’s most serious and tenacious primary challengers. He has also been prominently mentioned in numerous articles by major newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times and other major publications — the very things empowering the SOS to automatically list a candidate — during the current election cycle.
It’s difficult to understand her true motivation in excluding Mr. De La Fuente, but Secretary of State Benson should be ashamed of herself.
De La Fuente, who has already qualified for Republican primaries in more states than Trump, Weld, Sanford and Walsh combined and has seeded his campaign with far money than any of the President’s other three “prominent” challengers, has reportedly raised more than $10,187,000 as of September 30, according to his latest filing with the Federal Election Commission.
According to their most recent FEC filings, covering the period ending September 30th, Weld has raised only $1,329,000, Walsh reported $234,991 and Sanford $68,968.
Interestingly, one of the eighteen Democrats on Benson’s list — little-known Wayne Messam, the mayor of Miramar, Florida — reportedly raised only $5 in the last quarter while spending nothing and has rarely been seen on the campaign trail in recent months. Most people in his hometown — a city of about 140,000 — aren’t even aware that their mayor is running for president.
One can only wonder how Benson, a partisan Democrat, justifies placing a seemingly whimsical candidate like Messam, a virtual non-entity in this year’s presidential sweepstakes, on the Democratic primary ballot while excluding a substantive, well-funded and serious candidate like Rocky from the Republican primary ballot. It’s mind-boggling, to put it mildly.
De La Fuente, who has already qualified for the GOP primary ballot in New Hampshire, Vermont, Delaware, Alabama, Arkansas and Colorado, recently filed his qualifying paperwork in delegate-rich California and paid his $25,000 qualifying fee in Florida. In addition, he’s currently petitioning for a spot on the primary ballots in Illinois, Mississippi, Tennessee and elsewhere and plans to challenge President Trump in virtually every single presidential primary next year.
The low-key, but highly successful entrepreneur and real estate developer, making his second bid for the presidency, was baffled by Friday’s exclusion and is calling on Michigan Republican state chair Laura Cox to do the right thing and include his name on the party’s list of presidential candidates, which has to be submitted no later than Tuesday.
“I find it outrageous,” said De La Fuente, adding that his exclusion is an affront to the state’s Hispanic population. Michigan’s Hispanic and Latino population exceeds more than a half million citizens, or more than five percent of the state’s total population.
Michigan law requires the Secretary of State to issue a list of individuals “generally advocated by the national news media to be potential presidential candidates” for automatic inclusion in the Democratic and Republican presidential primaries, which are scheduled for March 10th. The state chair of both parties have until Tuesday, Nov. 12, to add additional names to that list.
Candidates overlooked or willfully ignored by the Secretary of State and their party’s respective state chairs can petition their way onto the primary ballot, but it isn’t easy. Republican candidates need a minimum of 11,398 valid signatures. The deadline is December 13th.
Four years ago, while waging his first campaign for the Oval Office, De La Fuente made history by becoming the first — and only — candidate to ever petition his way onto a presidential primary ballot in the Wolverine State.
Excluded by the lists submitted by both the Secretary of State and the Michigan Democratic Party, Rocky, refusing to be denied, collected a breathtaking 20,166 signatures on his nominating petitions — 12,832 valid signatures were required — in only seven days to qualify for the Democratic presidential primary. Remarkably, nearly 16,500 of those signatures were deemed valid by the Michigan Secretary of State.
It was nothing short of a herculean effort, but it was an arduous task, both time-consuming and extremely expensive.
It would truly be a shame — and a disgraceful double standard — if one of the most decent men seeking the nation’s highest office is required to do the same thing again.
Here’s hoping the Michigan GOP chair will do the honorable and decent thing and place Mr. De La Fuente’s name on the party’s own list of candidates.
If he’s excluded from the party’s list of candidates on Tuesday, De La Fuente hasn’t ruled out a possible petition drive or, more likely, taking appropriate legal action.
I wonder if Mark Sanford’s name will be removed now that he has dropped out. Perhaps THAT is not allowed, either!