Sorry, Scott Walker fans. The Wisconsin Governor is not running for President. At least not officially. At least not yet.
As Breitbart News reported on Tuesday, the Federal Election Commission’s website shows a candidate listing for “WALKER, SCOTT” for the 2016 presidential race.
That seems like an exciting find.
Political chatter has long predicted that Walker would enter the race in July, after Wisconsin’s legislative session wraps up. But in our 24-hour news cycle, social media-driven world, candidates can change their minds.
At the beginning of the year, former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA) was not going to run, but then spent a few weeks flirting with the idea, before finally deciding that the third time would not be the charm for him. Then he hosted a weekend event that got tongues wagging yet again. So, stay tuned.
And former Gov. Jeb Bush (R-FL) was initially believed to be planning to wait until later in the summer — presumably so he could continue fundraising with his Super PACs a little longer — before jumping into the race. Yet he ended up doing so on Monday.
So it was completely plausible that Walker had decided to shake things up and attempt to wrestle attention away from the media circus following Donald Trump deciding to enter the race.
Covering presidential candidates is pretty much guaranteed to be constant entertainment. I was skeptical that this really was Walker actually filing to run — there’s a reason that “Scott Walker” is in quotes in the headline of Tuesday’s story — but the possibility remained that some patriotic free spirit out there, who just happened to share a name with the Wisconsin Governor, had decided to run for President. Looking at other novelty candidates, the potential for an interesting interview was huge. Maybe this other Scott Walker would wear a boot as a hat like Vermin Supreme, or offer a unique platform like Jimmie McMillan of the “Rent is Too Damn High” Party.
Sadly, this was not to be.
Early Wednesday, our sources in Walker’s camp confirmed that he had not yet filed to run. This of course does not rule out Walker filing in the near future.
Breitbart News was able to contact the FEC Wednesday morning and get some clarification of why its online database shows a listing for Scott Walker. Turns out the answer, as so often in Washington, involves creaky bureaucracy.
Back in March, a Statement of Organization was filed for a committee titled “Draft Scott Walker Virginia” by a man named Jason Eugene Call, of Chesapeake, Virginia. The committee was created as an independent committee not authorized by the candidate. After raising $3,462.44, the committee was terminated earlier this month at the request of Call, who served as treasurer, and the funds were disbursed.
Christian Hillard, the FEC’s deputy press officer, confirmed to Breitbart News in an email that the candidate identification number in their system was created based on this Draft Scott Walker Virginia committee. “Whenever a draft committee is formed, the Commission creates an identification number for the named individual,” wrote Hillard. This also explains why the FEC’s online database was missing a lot of the information one would expect to find for an officially filed candidate.
Oh well.
As a final note, while neither the Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker nor anyone else of that name is running for president (for now), don’t despair, America. We still have plenty of choices, and not just in the ever-expanding Republican primary field.
According to the FEC’s records, as of Wednesday morning, 397 people have filed to run to be your next President. And Fox News is worried about fitting ten people on a debate stage.
Follow Sarah Rumpf on Twitter @rumpfshaker.