On Tuesday, Forward Kansas broke the story that Jim Anderson was looking at a potential third party run for the KS-04 seat, and, yesterday, we had the chance to catch up with the Anderson campaign in KS-04. We asked Shanen Taylor, media coordinator for the Anderson campaign, whether Anderson was eyeballing a run as a third party conservative candidate in the Congressional race. Taylor admitted that “anything’s possible” and running as a third party candidate was a consideration in the wake of the coup pulled off by Doug Hoffman against the Republican Party establishment in the NY-23 special election last week. For the time being, though, Taylor said:
“Jim Anderson is still running in the Republican primary, and, up until this point, we don’t see any change in that plan. We are gaining signatures for two primary reasons: one, to save money, because this is, not only practicing what we preach on being fiscally conservative, but, secondarily, we need to meet people anyway. Since this is a true grassroots campaign this is just another way to meet people.”
Taylor added…
“We don’t mind meeting our constituency, that is the purpose and mission of Jim’s campaign, to return power back to the hands of real people. That is what makes us so different from other established politicians and party officials in the race.”
According to Taylor, the Kansas Secretary of State has determined the Anderson campaign would need 3,400 signatures to file by petition. Taylor said the campaign has collected around 30 percent of the required signatures for filing.
When asked if the Anderson campaign would, if it was determined that the political winds were not at Anderson’s back later in the campaign, file as a conservative third party candidate instead of as a Republican, Taylor said that would be a decision they would make in the coming months and they wouldn’t wait until June to make a decision to run under the third party ticket. Taylor noted that the campaign has had several inquiries from large third parties and, as we reported on Tuesday, also had the endorsement of the American Independent Party.
The American Independent Party is the genesis of the Alan Keyes endorsement announced earlier this week. Keyes, a perennial candidate for national office and a member of the American Independent Party, will be in Wichita on November 21st to formally endorse Anderson.
Anderson also picked up another endorsement this week from Catholic Families for America, which also endorsed Doug Hoffman in the NY-23 special election last week. According to the CFA press release,
“[W]e hoped that we would have candidates of the superb quality of Jim Anderson. He is the ‘real-deal’ for conservatives: a pro-life, God-fearing businessman who will defend the Constitution.”
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