Expert says hard for Bloomberg to get on ballots

Expert says hard for
Bloomberg to get on ballots

BY KARLA SCHUSTER | karla.schuster@newsday.com
January 23, 2008

Mayor Michael Bloomberg "has what it takes" to wage a credible, competitive bid for the White House, but the billionaire mayor would face "terrible impediments" in getting on the ballot in all 50 states, according to Ross Perot's former campaign manager.

"I think the country is ready ... and he has what it takes - he's socially liberal, economically conservative and financially prepared," said Clay Mulford, an attorney and ballot access expert who met with the mayor in Texas last week. "I think it would be a positive thing if he did run, but the hurdles are incredible."

Mulford, a Dallas attorney who helped run Perot's independent presidential campaigns in 1992 and 1996, is a ballot-access expert who is now chief operating officer of a nonprofit education organization called the National Math and Science Initiative.

The two men initially discussed the work being done by Mulford's education group, but also talked about the byzantine ballot-access laws in many states, which Mulford described "as a mishmash of crazy rules designed to keep people off the ballot.

"We discussed some issues involving the nature of independent candidacies ... and how to overcome the unlevel and unfair playing field, but only in the most general terms," Mulford said yesterday in a phone interview. "He expressed no intention to run for president as an independent."

Mulford and Bloomberg lunched privately in Austin Friday, after the mayor appeared with Lance Armstrong and former U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona at a hospital.

"We talked about a lot of things," Bloomberg said yesterday when asked about the meeting. "We talked about the political scene in the country. He has the view of a Texas resident and someone who had been involved with politics. It was actually fascinating to listen to his views of the world."

Asked if he would consider working for a Bloomberg campaign, Mulford said only: "I'm very busy with math and science in public schools."

Bloomberg has insisted he is not a candidate for president, even as his aides conduct national polls to handicap his chances. Key aides have suggested the mayor would spend more than $1 billion if he ran.

"Money alone can't do it," Mulford warned, citing the ballot-access rules in his own state as an example. To get on the ballot in Texas, an independent candidate must collect 75,000 signatures between March 5 and May 12 from residents who didn't vote in a primary.

"Seventy-five thousand signatures in two months is a very difficult task unless there's a groundswell of support," he said.