Veteran Republican campaign operative Ed Rollins told Newsmax on Monday that Donald Trump's recent problems within the Republican Party stem mostly from his failure to rule out running as a third party candidate in 2016.
"Trump will have considerable difficulty going the third party route if he continues to seek the Republican nomination for president, which I think he will do," Rollins, onetime political director in the Reagan White House and manager of the 40th president's 1984 re-election, told us.
"So he would help himself among party activists by ruling out the third party run soon."
Rollins, who is neutral in the GOP presidential sweepstakes, spoke to Newsmax on the same day a Morning Consult poll of likely Republican primary voters showed Trump still leading the 17 candidates for the GOP presidential nomination.
Even after his widely denounced comments about Fox News debate moderator Megyn Kelly, Trump led the GOP pack with 32 percent, followed by Jeb Bush at 10 percent, Dr. Ben Carson at 9 percent, and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio at 6 percent each.
"It doesn't surprise me," Rollins said of these results showing Trump unhurt by the furor over his Kelly comments.
"Look, he's tapped very effectively into a sentiment of people who say 'I want someone who speaks his mind and isn't like the usual politician.' Nothing outlandish that he says will turn them off."
To add party activists to that group of supporters, Rollins said, "Trump needs to rule out a third party run. If he just said 'I want to beat Hillary Clinton and I think I'm the best candidate to do that, but an independent candidacy would hurt that goal,' he'd be fine. People in the party would start taking a second look at him."
Rollins also told us several states have "sore loser" laws that prevent a candidate from appearing on the November ballot if he or she sought the nomination of another party in the same year.
While 47 states bar candidates seeking nomination to office within the state from running on another ballot line, "sore loser" laws apply to presidential candidates in only four states: Mississippi, Ohio, South Dakota, and Texas.
Despite reports that Michigan has a similar ban, the "sore loser" law (Section 168.695) says "a candidate for nomination on the primary ballots of one political party shall be eligible as a candidate of any other political party at the election following that primary."
The law has no application to candidates who seek to use the independent presidential procedure.
Rollins also served briefly as co-chairman of Ross Perot's independent bid in 1992 before the Texas tycoon abruptly exited the race, only to return in the fall and get on 35 state ballots (when Rollins was not involved with him). Inevitably, he is asked if there are similarities between fellow billionaires Perot and Trump.
"Not really, and remember Perot was an independent from the start," he replied. "More importantly, Perot did not like criticism. He had an extraordinary business and when reporters started looking into it, he couldn't stand the scrutiny and went into the fetal position. His excuse about getting out of the race because someone was going to sabotage his daughter's wedding was nonsense. He got out because he couldn't take being criticized.
"Trump thrives on it. He's not getting out."
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