| If Reed Gusciora has his way, Vice President Al Gore will be represented by a statewide slate of delegate/alternate candidates on New Jersey's February 5, 2008 Presidential primary election ballot whether he is actively running or not, because there is no reason that NJ's voters shouldn't have the opportunity to vote for Al Gore just because he has his priorities in order and has determined that saving the world from an environmental apocalypse is more important than running for President.
Draft Gore NJ has been launched to recruit supporters of Al Gore to run as Uncommitted delegate/alternate candidates in each of New Jersey's 20 delegate districts, who are committed to voting for Al Gore at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver. |
| We believe that this strategy is the best approach to working towards winning the Democratic Presidential nomination for Al Gore in 2008, because it can be implemented no matter what Al Gore decides to do. If Al Gore announces that he is going to run for President, a campaign infrastructure will have already been established in the delegate districts where his committed delegates need to win on February 5, 2008 to be able to have the opportunity to nominate him in Denver. If Al Gore announces that he is not going to run for President, his supporters in New Jersey can continue to work to elect the slate of Uncommitted delegates that we will build in the coming weeks.
Without Al Gore as a Presidential candidate, we believe that the dynamic amongst the current field of Democratic Presidential candidates has created the possibility that no single candidate will arrive at the 2008 Democratic National Convention with enough delegates to win the nomination on the first ballot. If that were to happen, a brokered convention would ensue with delegates freed from their original commitments and able to vote for any candidate who presents herself/himself and candidates and their surrogates working the convention floor to win the vote on subsequent ballots.
We believe that if the Draft Gore movement is able to elect a small number (50-100 out of over 4,000, which can be accomplished by winning 1-2 delegates per state) of uncommitted delegates, who are committed to voting for Al Gore at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, and the first ballot fails to produce a nominee, the Draft Gore delegation will be substantial enough to lead a Draft Gore effort from the floor of the convention and convert enough of the rest of the delegates to join us that Al Gore will emerge from this process as a consensus candidate.
We also believe that if the Draft Gore movement is able to elect a small number (50-100 out of over 4,000, which can be accomplished by winning 1-2 delegates per state) of uncommitted delegates, who are committed to voting for Al Gore at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, and the Draft Gore delegation is substantial enough to give one candidate enough delegates to win the nomination on the first ballot, the Draft Gore delegation would put Al Gore in a position to negotiate the terms by which it would help that candidate win the nomination.
While Uncommitted delegate/alternate candidates are unable to run on behalf of someone officially without their approval, there is a history in New Jersey of slates of Uncommitted candidates running on someone's behalf, utilizing slogans that make it clear to the voters who an Uncommitted delegate/alternate candidate is supporting. As the Draft Gore NJ grassroots organization grows in the weeks to come, our ballot slogan will be announced.
If you are interested in joining this effort either as a prospective Uncommitted delegate/alternate candidate in your delegate district or as a leader of or volunteer for your delegate district's field organization, please feel free to visit the Draft Gore NJ website at your earliest convenience and use the form on the website to join our organization.
In the meantime, if you do not see Al Gore's name in the next Blue Jersey straw poll, please cast a vote for Other, write in Al Gore, and post a comment about why you are supporting the Draft Gore movement and why you believe that anybody for whom delegate/alternate candidates will be on the ballot in February's Presidential primary election. |
