• Home
• Voting & Democracy
  • Go Vote
  • N.C. Voter Guide
  • VoterRadio.com
• Research & Publications
  • Follow the Money
  • NCCVE Research
• Multimedia
  • The Voter Update Podcast
• For the Media
  • News Releases
  • Media Advisories
  • Contact NCCVE
• About Us
  • Board of Directors
  • Staff
  • Contribute to NCCVE
  • Contact Us
• Search

This is the fourth in a special five-part series, "The Other Contenders," looking at presidential candidates who have been overshadowed by their better-known competitors.

Jan. 7, 2008

The Other Contenders: Could They Have Been?

By Bryan Warner

RALEIGH - To paraphrase Marlon Brando in “On the Waterfront,” they could have been somebody.  They could have been a contender.  Perhaps.

In the first three parts of our special five-part series, “The Other Contenders,” we profiled Republican and Democratic presidential candidates who have been overshadowed by their better-known competitors.

As we come to part four, it appears that the well has run dry. Voting has just begun in this presidential primary season but the results of Iowa have already caused at least two candidates to fold their campaigns.

One of the two was Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, featured in the second part of our series. The other to leave was Delaware Sen. Joe Biden.

Along with Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo, who dropped out of the race just days before Iowans caucused, Biden was to be featured in this installment.  But even with their relatively early departure, Biden and Tancredo lasted longer than several others who had tossed their hats into the ring. 

Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas saw his bid last 10 months before he called it quits in October.  Preceding Brownback’s surrender were fellow Republicans Tommy Thompson and Jim Gilmore, former governors of Wisconsin and Virginia, respectively. If you blinked you may have missed the four-month campaign of former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, a Democrat.

Other names that at one time were floated as possible candidates never made a move for the presidency.

Former Senate majority leader Bill Frist seemed to have an inside track for the GOP nomination, but instead retired from politics.  Fellow Republican George Allen was a favorite for the nod but an imprudent remark captured on YouTube contributed to the end of his senatorial career and the preemptive demise of his presidential run.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was once seen as having a shot at the Oval Office, but his brother’s polling woes stalled that campaign before it ever started.

Among Democrats, Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh enjoyed some early buzz, as did Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold.  Mark Warner, former governor of red-state Virginia, was the subject of much speculation but chose instead to run for the Senate in 2008.

Riding high with an Oscar win and the Nobel Peace Prize, Al Gore broke many a Democrat’s heart when he declined to make another try for the White House.

That these potential contenders never launched a bid to be commander in chief is somewhat astonishing, given that, as Estes Kefauver once observed, “Presidential ambition is a disease which can only be cured by embalming fluid.”

For those who did dip their toes into the churning waters of the presidential race, their early departure -- most before the first ballot had been cast -- may be a bit more puzzling to voters. 

These candidates crisscrossed the country for months and visited just about every diner in Iowa and New Hampshire.  They spoke confidently of what they would do “when,” not “if,” they won the White House.  They raised contributions -- not nearly as much as their better-heeled rivals -- from folks who believed in them.  Surely they must have believed in themselves.

The latest casualties of the 2008 presidential race, Dodd and Biden, endured until the caucuses closed in the Hawkeye State. Maybe they saw the writing on the wall. Maybe they were exhausted from the rigors of the road to the White House and its incessant money chase. Ultimately, the preferences of some 239,000 Iowans ended their quest to serve as president of 300 million Americans.

For these departed candidates, and those that never were, they may be haunted by the question: With patience and some luck, could they have been contenders?

Bryan Warner is the director of communications with the N.C. Center for Voter Education, a Raleigh-based nonprofit and nonpartisan organization dedicated to improving elections in North Carolina.