$40,000 South Carolina filing fee looms for GOP candidates

[Mr. Morden]

The first ballot deadline is approaching, along with the hefty filing fee:

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/sc-filing-fee-poses-early-hurdle-gop-campaigns-n431711

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Will candidates like Gilmore and Pataki even be able to come up with the $ for these ballot filings?  And if not, what’s the point of continuing with their campaigns?

[Mr. Morden]

As a reminder, here's how much cash on hand each campaign (not Super PAC) had as of June 30th:

Gilmore wasn't in the race yet back then, but I can't imagine he would have raised much at this point.  I guess at least he was the governor of a much bigger state than Chafee, so he might be able to come up with more than a few thousand $.

[Mr. Morden]

The filing fee in South Carolina is so large because the state parties pay for the primary there, and the state GOP wants to recoup at least some of the cost by making the candidates pay through the nose.

In most states, the state government pays for the primary, and so the filing fee is much smaller (a few hundred $ in most cases, I think).  However, they also tend to require you to produce a bunch of signatures, so unless you have a huge amount of organic support, that also requires you to spend some $.

So candidates with little to no money could indeed end up being left off the ballot in many states.  We'll just have to wait and see how it goes.

[Mr. Morden]

Apparently Arkansas charges $25,000, but it’s the only other state where the fee is $10,000 or more:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/sep/22/2016-republican-field-may-be-pared-by-campaign-cos/?page=all

[Mr. Morden]

Apparently Arkansas charges $25,000, but it’s the only other state where the fee is $10,000 or more:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/sep/22/2016-republican-field-may-be-pared-by-campaign-cos/?page=all

The Kansas GOP has a $15,000 filing fee.

http://www.thegreenpapers.com/P16/KS-R

Ah, OK.  But that's a caucus, and I was just thinking of primaries.  But yes, that's another expensive one.

[Mr. Morden]

So any update from this??  Which of candidates that poll lower than 5% had filed for South Carolina already?

As of two days ago, these guys have filed:

http://www.vox.com/2015/9/24/9394653/trump-south-carolina

Bush
Carson
Cruz
Fiorina
Graham
Huckabee
Jindal
Kasich
Rubio
Santorum
Trump

Paul says he’ll file in a few days.  No word yet on these guys, from what I’ve seen:

Christie
Gilmore
Pataki

[Mr. Morden]

Btw, all of the filing deadlines are listed here (also relevant for a potential late Biden entry):

http://ballotpedia.org/Important_dates_in_the_2016_presidential_race

After SC on Sept. 30, no more filing deadlines until November.  The November deadlines are:

Nov. 9: Arkansas
Nov. 10: Texas
Nov. 20: Louisiana
Nov. 27: New Hampshire
Nov. 30: Illinois

[Mr. Morden]

Amazingly, Gilmore actually came up with the $ to leave his house, so he could file in person:

http://www.wistv.com/story/30138462/ex-gov-jim-gilmore-of-va-to-officially-enter-sc-gop-primary

[Mr. Morden]

Looks like Pataki has made it onto the ballot there as well:

https://twitter.com/GovernorPataki/status/649299821992509441

So I guess none of these guys are expecting to drop out within the next few weeks.