Charles Elson “Buddy” Roemer III has been a Reagan-Democrat and, for the past 20 years, a Republican. Now, after yet another political defection, he’s an independent candidate facing a fight for the Modern Whig vote (no joke). Put aside the trepidations you might have about electing yet another Harvard Business School graduate to the White House and cast your eyes on presidential candidate Buddy Roemer, a former U.S. Congressman and Louisiana governor and current bank president coming to Minnesota this week to preach his anti-corporate gospel.
That’s right … he’s a bank president with a bone to pick with corporations.
Roemer will be in town on Tuesday, May 1st, to tour a couple of Twin Cities campuses and media outlets, including Macalester and the U.
For those not in the know, he served as the governor of Louisiana from 1998 to 1991, when he lost a primary bid just months after switching from the Democratic to Republican parties. He hasn’t held elected office since.
Roemer, according to his campaign website, is a former conservative Democrat turned Republican turned something else. He’s blasted corporations for having too much power in politics, but he’s no liberal. How conservative is he? In an unsuccessful bid for the governor’s seat in 1995, Roemer proposed having prison chain gangs clean up Louisiana highways. He didn’t win.
So what kind of pol is Buddy? He’s a little bit Green, a little bit of a gambling man… While in office, Roemer was known for pushing strict environmental reforms that literally helped clean up Louisiana. He also supported legislative changes that opened the door to 15 floating riverboat casinos and video poker at bars and truck stops, as well as a new state lottery system. (Hey, isn’t that the sort of thing that might pay for a Vikings stadium…?)
These days, he’s focused his campaign on campaign finance reform, and has denied all PAC money in favor of individual contributions of $100 or less. That’s left him with less than $200,000 to run his campaign, as of the end of March…
He maintains that the bank he founded, Business First Bank, took no government bailout money during the financial crisis of 2008 and instead restructured home loans so clients would not be foreclosed upon. That move probably made him a buddy to many… On the other hand, he’s reportedly supportive of the Occupy Wall Street movement, which probably got him defriended from Facebook by some of his former Harvard Business School classmates.
But is he presidential material? Check out his campaign website and Twitter account and decide for yourself.
Roemer has converted a few followers. Not along ago, his campaign finance filings showed he received a $25 donation from a nuclear safety inspector who lives at 742 Evergreen Terrace in Springfield.
D’oh!