Imagine if Barack Obama had run in the Primary Election as a Democrat and lost but ran a secret campaign to get his name on the Republican ballot, ran as a Republican and was elected. He would be a Democrat President because he didn’t change his party but was elected because he ran a secret campaign on the Republican ballot. Obama didn’t do that but Barbara Bucknum did it in Northampton Township and both Dan Rattigan and Bud Baldwin did it in Upper Makefield.

Here’s’ some background about Politics in Upper Makefield. The Democrats are sort of taking over by stealth but so far there’s only one Democrat, Mary Ryan, who won both a “Normal” Democrat Primary and a Municipal election on the board. She was joined by Republican Dan Rattigan who lost a “Normal” Primary election but he won a supervisor seat because he also ran a secret campaign on the Democrat Ballot in the primary. Rattigan was defeated at the Republican Primary election but won as a write-in Democrat candidate. In the fall election he received both Democrat and Republican votes. He didn’t have to change his party after he was elected but he did. So today there are two Democrats on the board of supervisors and Incumbent Supervisor Bud Baldwin in doing it right now. If Baldwin wins today, the Democrats will take over the majority in Upper Makefield, a Heavy Republican district.

A similar situation is going on in Northampton where Republican Tax Collector Barbara Bucknum was defeated in the republican Primary in May but was appointed as a Democrat Candidate for the November election. Barbara is still registered Republican. SO she is collecting Republican votes from people who like her and from Democrats who are supporting her.

These are bi-partisan elections. Bucks County may be leading the new wave of candidates who run on two parties in one election. How is that possible?

How can a Republican get on the Democrat ballot? It’s simple, really. The above cases show two ways. Both work.

The first way is to run a write-in campaign on the opposite ballot while running as a registered candidate on the ballot of your own party. the trick is to run a write in campaign when there is no candidate running on the opposite party. That’s the way both Dan Rattigan and Bud Baldwin got on the Democrat Ballot while there were running as Republicans. There is no rule that a Democrat must run as a Democrat on the Democrat Ballot.

That means a Tea Party Republican can run a write-in campaign on either or both ballots and if there is no opposition candidate they would be on the ballot of whatever party ballot they targeted with the write-in campaign. In Upper Makefield, the Democrats did not have a candidate on the Primary ballot when Dan Rattigan ran as supervisor candidate. Same for Bud Baldwin.

Is this a New Political Strategy to exploit or invade a political party system?  .

 

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