Looks like the filing deadline to run as an independent candidate was about a week after the primary. She would have needed to jump through a bunch of hoops, including getting 5,418 valid signatures.
I think it’s probable that someone who lost the primary wouldn’t have enough time to start and complete the process to get ballot access. But if you anticipated losing the primary and prepared for a contingency plan in advance, the timeline should be doable.
That being said, I haven’t read through Wyoming election law or regs with an eye towards that aspect, so…
The quick reason is, I feel that the hippy-dippy crystals-as-healing anti-vax type leftists haven’t changed much, and were already likely to peel away for a Jill Stein or similar.
I have observed a vast swath of the right over the past decade fall victim to QAnon/MAGA disinformation. Obviously anti-vax is a huge part of this. Combined with his antisemitic remarks and explicit neo-Nazi messaging that he himself disseminated, I think he will be proportionally more appealing to conservatives than liberals, especially relative to a Gary Johnson or similar. Especially with Trump being so polarizing to moderate conservatives, I see RFK peeling that vote a fair bit more.
I think it would be interesting if the Ds simply voted “present”. Let the Rs pick the speaker. Maybe McCarthy wins 200 to 21. He does not need to pander to the wingnuts. (He might anyway, but this is only one vote.)
D’s claim to be unified and not wish to bail out mccarthy. mccarthy said J6 events were all trump’s fault until he spoke with trump and then said it wasn’t; shit on the J6 committee; censured schiff; reneged on a spending deal that threatened the shutdown; and green-lit the biden impeachment inquiry without a vote and no evidence (despite how one of our board would describe “a lot of people say”) of joe being involved in hunter’s (addiction fueled?) shittiness. he spent the weekend on TV blaming democrats for the threat of the shutdown.
the disfunction of the R party is on them to sort. if the D’s save mccarthy, he couldn’t be trusted to hold to a deal. and they would deserve what he “delivers”.
voting to keep him is bailing him out. voting present leaves it to the R’s and that bails him out. they should desire to have someone who honors an agreement that they made, right?
I didn’t realize the sex trafficking investigation into Gaetz was dropped. His associate was guilty of 6 counts involving sex trafficking of a minor, bribery, and more, but the evidence couldn’t be satisfactorily linked to Gaetz.
However, the House ethics committee opened a new investigation into him in July, and it’s what they’re hoping to use to boot him if needed:
The Committee is aware of public allegations that Representative Matt Gaetz may have engaged in sexual misconduct and/or illicit drug use, shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe, improper gratuity, or impermissible gift, in violation of House Rules, laws, or other standards of conduct.
The reason i can see Ds might want to keep McCarthy is to avoid the prolonged gridlock that could result from his ouster. Another is enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Another is devil you know versus devil you don’t know. I mean, the people trying to oust him are worse than McCarthy. They will want someone even worse for getting things done and for shedding more liberal tears.
Coalition gov’t with saner part of the GOP might be the best way, though it will also eventually fail to an ouster attempt.
