By Linda Douglass, NationalJournal.com
© National Journal Group Inc.
Thursday, June 21, 2007

A few hours after New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced he was leaving the Republican Party, a little-known Web site was so overwhelmed with traffic that it crashed. Unity '08, a grassroots campaign to elect a bipartisan presidential ticket next year, is suddenly attracting a lot of attention.

Unity '08 is the brainchild of some long-ago Republican and Democratic campaign operatives who bonded over their mutual fury at partisan politics. They are trying to do what most experts think is impossible: ignite an uprising from the political middle.

The group is aiming to stage a virtual convention next June, where delegates will choose a presidential ticket online. But there's a twist: The presidential and vice presidential candidates must seek the nomination as a team and they must be from different political parties. One of the candidates could even be an independent. An independent such as, say, Bloomberg.

Unity co-founder Doug Bailey, a Republican, says his group did not know Bloomberg was going to jump the GOP ship. (Bailey is also founder of National Journal's "The Hotline", with which he is no longer affiliated.) But he, Gerald Rafshoon, a Unity Democratic co-founder and one-time advisor to former President Jimmy Carter, were quick to heap praise on New York's mayor.

Rafshoon called him "the perfect independent leader" and someone "who knows how to work across party lines to get results."

Added Bailey: "He understands the need for common ground."

Last year, another Unity co-founder, former Carter chief of staff Hamilton Jordan, briefed Bloomberg Deputy Mayor Kevin Sheekey about how the Unity '08 nominating process will work. Bailey says the group has briefed other potential candidates as well, all confidentially.

As of last week, Unity '08 had signed up only 64,000 delegates. Bailey says it is too early to know how many new members signed up when news of Bloomberg's moves erupted. Bailey thinks Unity '08 could have a million delegates by this fall. And once the major parties choose their candidates, presumably in February, he insists that his group "will be the only game left in town."

"Many people", he argues, "will be disappointed with their choices." Bailey predicts Unity '08 will have five to eight million delegates by convention time.

As the group tries to sign up delegates, it is also scrambling to raise money to pay for the mind-boggling job of getting its presidential ticket on the ballot in all 50 states. Rafshoon concedes the fundraising is hard. Centrist politics rarely ignite passion. But he and Bailey argue public anger at Washington's inability to solve problems is at an all-time high. They believe this might just be the middle's moment.

If they succeed, says Bailey, "it will be a great victory over the blame game of polarized politics."

But if they build it, will Bloomberg come?