Ron Paul hints third-party run still possible ...

04.26.08 -- 1:44 PM

By Zim Sidney

Politico's Jonathan Martin has a piece on how Texas GOP Congressman Ron Paul who dropped out of the Republican presidential nomination race in March is still turning out enthusiastic crowds. But more importantly Martin reports that Paul is not entirely slamming the door shut on a third-party run .

Two candidates not named John McCain got a combined 219,913 votes in the Pennsylvania Republican primary Tuesday, and one of them is still in the race.

Sort of.

“I’m a real candidate, but I try to keep everybody living in the real world,” Ron Paul said in an interview, alluding to the exuberance of his supporters.

Despite posting a video on his website last month conceding that he couldn’t win and indicating that he was winding down his campaign, Paul continues to be a presence in the GOP contest. He aired a radio ad before the Pennsylvania primary, is still traveling the country to appear at campaign events and, as of the end of March, had more than $5 million in the bank.

He got 16 percent of the vote Tuesday, which, combined with Mike Huckabee’s vote share, meant that more than a quarter of the voters in the Keystone State’s closed Republican primary voted for somebody other than their party’s all-but-certain nominee.

The libertarian-leaning obstetrician-turned-congressman's long-shot candidacy continues to take on a life of its own — and he admits he’s in no rush to tamp down the enthusiasm.

“There is no way I could turn it off — I went up to Penn State and had 1,500 people,” Paul observed, still seemingly amazed at his following. “So it’s just sort of going to go on.”

The question now, however, is where those die-hards who still line highway medians with Paul's road signs and flood Internet sites with comments will go with their vote in November.

Many, of course, will be watching Paul for a cue.

“I’ll be very cautious about what I do,” he said, noting his effort to encourage his supporters to get involved with their local Republican committee. “If I just endorse somebody from another party and walk away, that probably wouldn’t go over too well.”

But while keeping to the same mantra — “I have no plan, no intention to do so” — Paul is also not completely slamming the door shut on a third-party run. And, perhaps more worrisome for Republicans should they have a tight race with the eventual Democratic nominee, he’s also not ruling out supporting a third-party candidate.

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