For starters, Roemer wants a national platform to talk about campaign-finance reform, which he’s made the central issue of his campaign.
“He’s got a message about economic planning and fiscal responsibility, and he thinks he has the answer that no one else has,” says Natalie Davis, a political scientist at Birmingham-Southern College in Alabama. “That’s why he wants to get in it.”
In addition, Roemer may be using the primary race as a way to get back into political office – even if it’s not the White House, says Ford O’Connell, chairman of the Virginia-based CivicForumPAC.
“He wants back into politics, Mr. O’Connell says. “This is his way back in.... Buddy’s looking down the road possibly to a run, maybe back in Louisiana.”
Even if he doesn’t win, says Allan Lichtman, a presidential historian at American University in Washington, “He’s got us talking about him.”
