Back in the early days of the 2008 election a couple of guys wanted to build a new independent party (dammit!  I cannot recall what is was called)….their idea was to nominate a Dem and a Repub for a new independent ticket….it was a bomb and at best it was a political scam…..and now almost 20 years later another ‘well meaning’ billionaire has a ‘new’ idea.

Floridians aren’t getting John Morgan on the ballot—but he’s dangling six figures to rebrand their politics. The 70-year-old billionaire ended statewide speculation on Monday by announcing that he would not run for governor, reports Politico. However, Morgan does plan to launch a new state political party and will pay $100,000 to whoever comes up with its name. The contest rules will be laid out in the coming days. One that’s clear: Morgan can afford the reward: Forbes pegs his worth at $1.5 billion.

Morgan, who built the Morgan & Morgan injury law empire, has poured millions into successful ballot measures to raise Florida’s minimum wage and legalize marijuana, earning him the nickname “Pot Daddy.” The former Democrat, who is now registered as an Independent, previously flirted with gubernatorial runs in 2018 and 2024. In his Monday video, Morgan argued that “what ails us is the two-party system,” adding, “Most of us agree on most things, but if you put the D up and the R up, nothing ever gets done.”

Do not be fooled!  This is just another political scam by a billionaire that is hedging his vote in case Donny is shown the door.

Got It!  (Damn!  That took a lot of thinking on my poor brain)

This 2008 attempt was called Unit08

The political reform movement was founded as a non-profit organization by several political figures: Democrats Hamilton Jordan, Gerald Rafshoon, and Republican consultants Doug Bailey and Jim Jonas and the former two-term independent Maine Governor Angus King. Unity08 attempted to leverage online technology, such as secure voting, to allow American voters to determine the most crucial issues facing the country, discuss them with potential nominees, and participate in an online convention to nominate a bipartisan presidential ticket. In an interview that aired on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer in May 2006, Unity08’s founders said that the group was formed in response to the polarization between the Republican and Democratic political parties. The group also cited a poll it commissioned from Princeton Survey Research and claimed that 82 percent of Americans think that the two major political parties are unable to address the country’s problems and that 73 percent of Americans are in favor of alternatives to the two parties.

The group’s status as a non-profit organization came into question when they asked the Federal Election Commission whether the group could defer registering as a political action committee until after its candidates for the 2008 presidential election were named. A draft released by the commission in July 2006 concluded that “Unity08 must register as a policy committee and therefore is subject to the reporting requirements and limitations and prohibitions.”  In October 2006, the commission voted on the matter and declared that the group must register as a political action committee.

It stated goals were….

Unity08 had four major goals:

• Enable Americans to rank America’s most crucial issues.
• Empower Americans to draft or evaluate Unity08 candidates and actively engage them in debate about the crucial issues.
• Empower Americans to nominate a bipartisan Unity ticket via an online convention and secure voting process.
• Elect the Unity08 presidential ticket to national office.

The Unity08 presidential ticket was to consist of two candidates that come from different political parties. This bipartisan team was to propose a bipartisan cabinet in an effort to end paralysis in government. Co-founder Doug Bailey explained “What we are trying to do is to create a forum for people who are in the middle who have been left out of politics.”

Here is what ‘liberal’ bloggers thought (that would be me)

Liberal bloggers also expressed frustration with Unity08 because they contend that the group promoted “establishment” centrist or center-right politicians in the molds of Joe Lieberman and Michael Bloomberg while at the same time doing little to promote the progressive values it would seemingly represent. Chris Bowers of the political blog MyDD called the group’s supporters “rich, center-right, ‘non-partisan‘ donors who trash progressives and never criticize conservatives in power,” and claimed that the movement has no grassroots support.  Other bloggers also criticized the heavy representation of lobbyists among the organization’s officers.

It failed….why?  Lack of funds for most people saw it for what it was a political scam.

Please do not fall prey to this overt bullshit by a some billionaire to hedge his vote.

I will vote for a third party but it will not be anyone of this caliber.

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”