Kentucky law prohibits a candidate from running for two different offices at once. Republican Sen. Rand Paul is running for re-election and is also exploring a bid for president.
Posted on 11/11/2014 8:39:35 AM PST by Theoria
Everyone knows Sen. Mitch McConnell had a great election night in Kentucky last week. As for the state's other Republican senator, Rand Paul, that's a different matter.
That's because while McConnell was cruising to a big re-election win on his way to becoming Senate majority leader, things did not go so well for Paul. He was hoping Republicans, who already control the Kentucky Senate, would also take over the state House — a result that would grease the path for a state law allowing him to run for both re-election and the presidency at the same time.
But that failed to happen. And the Democrats who are still in charge of the state House are disinclined to pass a law to help Paul.
Kentucky's Democratic House speaker Greg Stumbo refused to take up the two-ballot-spots-at-once bill earlier this year because it was designed for a single person, in violation of Kentucky's constitution. "There's only one guy who's talking about holding onto his Senate seat and also running for United States president," he told NPR.
With Stumbo still in control, Paul may eventually have to choose between running for the White House and holding onto his Senate seat.
Officially, keeping the Senate seat remains Paul's only goal at this moment. "Sen. Paul is 100 percent focused on his re-election," says spokesman Dan Bayens — even as Paul openly discusses his interest in running for president.
Paul's situation is similar to, but much more difficult than, those facing other Republican senators thought to be considering a 2016 presidential run.
Ohio law, for example, allows Sen. Rob Portman to run for both offices simultaneously. In Florida, the qualifying deadline for U.S. House and Senate seats isn't until May 6, 2016 — meaning Sen. Marco Rubio would almost certainly know whether he was going to be the GOP presidential nominee before he had to file for re-election. Since Texas Sen. Ted Cruz was just elected in 2012, he doesn't have a conflict — he's not up for re-election until 2016.
The deadline for House and Senate candidates in Kentucky is Jan. 26 — six days before the Iowa caucuses, according to the Republican National Committee schedule. Kentucky law states that a candidate cannot appear twice on the same ballot — meaning Paul could either run for Senate or for the presidency but not for both in the Kentucky primary.
Paul and his supporters, though, have already thought of a partial workaround: Change Kentucky's Republican presidential nominating contest from the May 17 primary to a caucus in mid- to late March. That way, Paul could still file for the Kentucky primary ballot in January, appear on (and presumably win) the Senate primary in May — all the while pursuing the presidential nomination.
Paul discussed the possible logistics of a presidential caucus with Kentucky Republican Party chairman Steve Robertson for a half-hour at McConnell's victory party last week, Bayens confirmed.
Switching from the primary to a caucus would not require a change to Kentucky law, but would require ratification by state and local party committees. If the party does want to switch to a caucus, it would likely need to start the process by October 2015.
Of course, should Paul ultimately win the presidential nomination (or accept the vice-presidential nomination), Kentucky law would at that point force him to give up his run for re-election, said Stumbo, with no ability for Kentucky Republicans to replace him on the ballot. "The Democratic candidate would win the seat," he asserted.
The statute in question allows for a candidate's replacement by the party only in the event of death or incapacitation — which, Stumbo said, means physical or mental incapacitation. "Some of us might agree that he's incapable of holding public office, but I'm not sure a court would say that meets the letter of the law," Stumbo said.
Kentucky law prohibits a candidate from running for two different offices at once. Republican Sen. Rand Paul is running for re-election and is also exploring a bid for president.
>> “Sen. Paul is 100 percent focused on his re-election,” says spokesman Dan Bayens — even as Paul openly discusses his interest in running for president.
There’s not a dime’s worth of difference between LIEberals and LIEbertarians.
Hey, I really like this law! More states should do the same IMO.
Get rid of NPR
Government has NO business in the “news” business, esp the “biased ‘news’ business”
Public TV also. Get them both out
It indeed doesn’t seem right that the same candidate be on the same ballot for more than one ‘Federal Office’. Though unlikely, imagine if the same candidate got nominated for a congressional district, senate, and president all at the same time. What if they won all three? lol That’s a sloppy way of doing things. The winning candidate would choose which office they wanted, and the governor would appoint for the other two, effectively taking away the vote from everyone that participated in those other two elections, until a special election happens anyway.
Not how it should be done. If you’re gonna run for higher office, you owe it to your constituents, and others who may want to run for it; to vacate your seat.
They should and it would be no great loss. I used to have to listen to NPR programming on AFN. Car Talk was the only entertaining thing they had.
They may not have a practical means to prevent him from doing so.
But if they do, he elects to leave his name off the Presidential ballot on the theory that he gets the Kentucky electoral vote anyway--put in his VP nominee as a stake holder for the Presidency in Kentucky. All kinds of ways around the problem.
You know, (and this is strictly a hypothetical-technical exercise because Paul doesn’t have my support for the POTUS nomination and I don’t think he’s going to get the POTUS nomination anyways), but the solution might be to have Paul’s name on the KY ballot for Senator and then run a favored-son candidate on the POTUS line who would promise to throw his electoral college delegates to Paul, in the event Paul won both the GOP nomination and the election.
Now Senator Paul has to choose one or the other. This is great news for Ted Cruz, and for those GOP voters who do not desire another generation of having a Paul run in every GOP Primary.
Pick one, Rand. I think you're a fine Senator.
Bob Dole resigned, although he didn't have to.
McCain did not resign because he didn't have to and he is a scumbag.
Not the least of his problems is he has no chance of getting the nomination in spite of the pot headed MSM support for him.
It seems to me that the better solution would be for KY to change the early date for filing as a candidate to something later, giving Senator Paul the same opportunity as Rubio has. It would also apply to all candidates so it wouldn’t violate the state’s constitution.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see some pressure on the Dems in KY to do this. There’s a bit of pride involved in having a President hail from your own state, after all, and his Libertarian bent will put some pressure across party lines.
Not so much anymore.
McCain’s service was admirable, and for it he deserves our gratitude, but during his time in the senate, he has been little more than a media whoring low-life, trying to push his agenda on others.(BIG government and the Military Industrial Complex) I don’t think he has seen a spy program against law abiding citizens that he didn’t like. The 4th Amendment doesn’t exist to him.(among others)
His little bitch Lindsey Grahamnesty is being groomed to take his place, when he finally falls over.
Looks to me like Rand Paul is putting the cart before the horse.
Rand went to Berkeley Campus and they gave him standing-O.
Ditto with NAACP speech. Looks to me like he is preparing for the general election. But first he has to win republican nomination!
McCain graduated near the bottom of his class from the military academy. He was a lousy pilot, being shot down very quickly.
He was treated different in Hanoi Hilton than others because his father was a big shot in military. I can’t see where he has accomplished much in life except marrying into money.
Didn't Juan trash 3 planes?
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