Is it honorable to run for both a senate seat and the presidency at the same time? Trying to have it both ways is something Democrat senators usually do (just ask Joe Lieberman, Joe Biden, John Edwards, and Lloyd Bentsen), but Republicans should be made of sterner stuff, and either run for national office or their senate seat but not both simultaneously:
Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.), seeking a way to run for re-election to the Senate at the same time he pursues a presidential bid, has formally asked the Kentucky GOP to clear the way for him by changing the state’s presidential nominating contest from a primary to a caucus in 2016. In a letter sent earlier this month to members of the Kentucky GOP Central Committee, Mr. Paul said the change would “help me get an equal chance at the nomination” by allowing him to circumvent a state law barring candidates from appearing twice on the same ballot.
The central committee is scheduled to discuss the issue at a March 7 meeting in Bowling Green, Ky., and Mr. Paul is backing a proposal to move the presidential preference vote from the state’s May primary to a March 2016 caucus. That would allow him to run for both offices because his name would appear only once, for the Senate, on the May primary ballot; his name would be considered separately for president at the caucus.
Paul correctly points out that Paul Ryan also ran for both his House seat and the veep slot in 2014, but that doesn’t make it right, only pragmatic. Meanwhile, his potential rival, Marco Rubio, says he will choose one or the other:
Mr. Paul has not yet formally declared he is running for president, but says he plans to make a decision in the next couple of months. Another likely candidate who faces a similar home-state dilemma is Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who is up for re-election to the Senate in a state where candidates cannot appear twice on the ballot. But unlike Mr. Paul, Mr. Rubio has said he will choose one office or the other and not try to run for both.
