It’s been fun coming up with a new fantasy presidential candidate every couple of weeks: Sarah Palin, Paul Ryan, now Chris Christie. But the time for speculation is coming to an end soon thanks to some hard deadlines for getting on the ballot in key states.
For awhile now, pundits have been talking up the chances of a late entrant to the race by noting that Bill Clinton didn’t announce until October 3, 1991. But state deadlines were also much later that year. Mario Cuomo, who many considered the frontrunner at the time, was considered a possible candidate right up until the filing date for the New Hampshire primary in late December, when he announced 90 minutes before the deadline that he would not run.
This time around the deadline for New Hampshire is November 21, but the real point of no return for candidates is much earlier, on Halloween. Even though the Florida GOP has yet to agree on a final date for the primary election, a spokesman told TPM that candidates will still need to file their request to participate no later than October 31. Given that Florida is rapidly shaping up to be a crucial, perhaps decisive, contest, it’s pretty unlikely anyone would join the race without being able to compete there. The next day is also the filing deadline for another crucial early primary: South Carolina.
Democratic lawyer Matt Seyfang recently told Politico that candidates would likely need to enter the race by no later than mid-October in order to have sufficient time to deal with ballot access issues in all the early deadline states. So if Christie et al want to get in on the Republican primary, they better act fast.
