Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his running mate Nicole Shanahan
By Dan Murphy
News anchor Chris Cuomo, now a host on News Nation, has been vocal about what he sees as the mistake made by members of the Kennedy family in coming out and endorsing Joe Biden, over their brother and cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “I don’t get how the Kennedy’s think they are helping. I don’t know if Bobby can win, I don’t even know if he is qualified to win. But that’s not the point. I have him on here (Cuomo’s Newsmax show) because the (political) parties are poison and they have to stop having a stranglehold on our democracy. The parties aren’t helping. That’s my former sister in law, (Kerry Kennedy). But does this help Biden? Or does this show that even the Kennedy’s are not immune from the division that our politics has created. It’s weird that its her brother that she is campaigning against. You can’t think that coming out against your brother is going to help undecided voters think that Biden is a better choice. I don’t get it.”
What is interesting is that Chris Cuomo’s brother Andrew, was once married to Kerry Kennedy, and both lived in Westchester. RFK Jr. has been ignored by most of the major media, but has worked around that by being interviewed by almost every podcast on YouTube.
And it is hard to ignore a Kennedy running for President. The name still has magic left in the tank. And a large portion of Americans don’t want to vote for Trump or Biden. RFK Jr. is polling around 13%, and he is taking away votes from both Biden and Trump. If he gets to 15% he will be on the debate stage in October with Trump and Biden, if there is a Presidential debate this year.
Now the battle is to get RFK Jr. on the ballot in New York State. New York is one of the three hardest states in the country to get on the ballot, with Texas and California.
The reason why it is so hard for Kennedy, and the Libertarian Party, Green Party and others to get on the ballot statewide in New York goes back to former Governor Andrew Cuomo. The NY Libertarian Party explained it well in a recent release. “The Libertarian Party in New York has placed a presidential candidate on statewide election ballots every presidential year since 1976. According to Andrew Kolstee, Chair of the Libertarian Party of New York (LPNY), the new requirement of 45,000 valid petition signatures during the six-week petition period from April 16–May 28 will be hard to attain.
“According to LPNY Chair, Andrew Kolstee, the 45,000 petition signature requirement in New York for independents over a six-week period represents the highest number of signatures per day required of any state. “It used to be 15,000 signatures and we had been able to get that every time, but Governor Cuomo tripled the requirements in part ZZZ of the 2020-2021 budget,” said Kolstee.
“The new requirements also set a precedent in 2022, which was the first time there were only two choices for Governor in New York since 1946,” said Kolstee. “As long as strenuous ballot access requirements remain in effect, New Yorkers will be stuck with two parties. We don’t want to see that happen, especially when Americans are more and more dissatisfied with the two major parties, and their respective presumptive nominees.”
Former Governor Cuomo’s decision to make it tougher for smaller parties to get on the ballot for Governor and President in NY dates back to 2018. Cuomo was running for re-election. The NY Working Families Party decided to support actress Cynthia Nixon for Governor.
This enraged Cuomo who forced the NY legislature to increase the thresholods for minor parties to get on the ballot statewide by including it in the state budget. Ironically, Cuomo’s intentions, to harm the WFP backfired. The WFP is one of only four political parties left in New York, with the democrats, republicans and conservatives.
So RFK Jr.’s campaign is in the process of getting 45,000 signatures to get on the ballot for President in NY. He actually needs around 75,000 signatures to be safe.
We have always advocated that the more voices involved in our democratic process, the better. And we would certainly like the alternative of RFK on the ballot in NY on November 5.
For those who agree, why not sign Kennedy’s petition, which will just get him on the ballot? Anyone interested in doing so can contact us at dmurphy@risingmediagroup.com.
California Governor Gavin Newsome, who is seen by some as a backup plan to Biden, said “It’s real… Bobby Kennedy Jr., if he gets on [the ballot] in more than just that one critical swing state of Michigan, and gets on the ballot in some of these others, I think you have to take that very, very serious.”
