Running for President - gray areas

[Graaa]

What is the name of your state? CT

The running age for president is 35.
BUT
What if you have a late birthday, say the 1st of November and you would turn 35 right before the elections.

Can you run if you are 34?

Finally one last question,
Can somebody who is running for president also be the vice president of another candidate's campaign at the same time?

For example, can John run for president with Henry as his vice president, and Henry be running for president with John as his vice president simultaneously?

Thanks

[quincy]

The Constitution only says that no one can attain the office of President unless he/she is 35years of age, which I interpret to mean that a 34 year old can RUN for President, as long as she/he is 35 before becoming President.
Running as both VP and President would show an ambivalence about being President, and would not show a lot of faith in the person you were running for Vice President with, either, if you were running against him.


Reason for editing: Racer72 pointed out my stupidity...I hate to leave it ALL in print (although he has very kindly preserved some of it in his own post)

[racer72]

Originally Posted by graaaaaa

Can somebody who is running for president also be the vice president of another candidate's campaign at the same time?

This could never happen. The Vice Presidential candidate is not selected till the official party candidate for President is selected, this happens at each party's convention. Once the party ticket is selected no one may run for the President or VP from the same party.

Originally Posted by quimpy

but running mates are usually selected so far in advance that it is not done that way, and by the time the campaigning is over, usually the candidates have said so many nasty things about each other, it would be tough to work together

You don't know a lot about politics, do you?

[Graaa]

Originally Posted by racer72

Once the party ticket is selected no one may run for the President or VP from the same party.

Assume that we are both running in independent parties.

But yeah, I can see some things wrong with this. Like if we both made it to the end of the run, he'd probably steal some of my votes while I'd steal some of his votes, giving a third candidate a better chance to win.

Anybody else see something wrong with this scenario?

[quincy]

quimpy??

racer72 - I obviously know more about some things than others, but I can only plead temporary insanity on this one, because I have NO idea where my answer came from. I was concentrating on the question as if it were a "Who is buried in Grant's tomb?" type of question and totally forgot how our rather absurd political system works

(and, yes, Kerry/Edwards and Gore/Lieberman, etc, are all coming back to me now, too)

Good thing I am so smart all the rest of the time, huh?!

[racer72]

Originally Posted by Graaa

Assume that we are both running in independent parties.

Doesn't matter, federal election laws only allow a person to run for one office, period. Once one it nominated, they cannot run again and you are only allowed to run with one party affiliation.

[Mister Darcy]

Originally Posted by Graaa

What is the name of your state? CT

The running age for president is 35.
BUT
What if you have a late birthday, say the 1st of November and you would turn 35 right before the elections.

Can you run if you are 34?

Finally one last question,
Can somebody who is running for president also be the vice president of another candidate's campaign at the same time?

For example, can John run for president with Henry as his vice president, and Henry be running for president with John as his vice president simultaneously?

Thanks

What party would you be affiliated with? "Connecticut for Lieberman"?

[BoredAtty]

Originally Posted by racer72

Doesn't matter, federal election laws only allow a person to run for one office, period. Once one it nominated, they cannot run again and you are only allowed to run with one party affiliation.

Broadly speaking, that is not true. Presidential/vice presidential candidates who are already Senators/Congressmen have run for re-election to those offices simultaneously.

I'm not sure about the more limited question of running for vice president and president simultaneously, however. If enough people wrote down the vice presidential candidate's name as their choice for President, I'm sure he would have legally won the presidential election. Therefore, I would assume a person could technically run for the two offices simultaneously.