A Republican donor and former fundraising bundler for Mitt Romney has launched a new group, Better for America, to seek ballot access for a third-party conservative candidate challenger to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Maggie Haberman at the New York Times has the scoop:
A conservative donor who has been scouring Republican ranks for a third-party candidate is pressing ahead with a group to get on the ballot in dozens of states. The candidate will come once the group sees that the ballot access is possible. The donor, John Kingston, a bundler and ally of Mitt Romney, said he will bankroll a ballot-access project to create a path for someone to run as another option. The effort is being called Better for America. The idea is “to do a proof of concept for everybody,” Mr. Kingston said. “It exists, there is a pathway, there is a road that you can be going down.” The Massachusetts man was heavily involved in efforts led by the Weekly Standard editor William Kristol to find a challenger to both Hillary Clintonand Donald J. Trump for a third-party line. His approach is similar to one used by a group, Americans Elect, in 1992, when it tried creating a ballot line unattached to a major party. Better for America has Mr. Kingston working with the pollster Joel Searby as the chief strategist, as well as the lawyers Mohammad Jazil and Matthew Sawyer. Mr. Sawyer was the general counsel for the Texas business magnate H. Ross Perot’s independent presidential run in 1996. Anne MacDonald, who was the chief of staff to the first lady Laura Bush, is also advising the group.
