DURHAM, N.H. – Feb. 4, 2016 – PRLog — Former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley suspended his presidential campaign before the Iowa Caucus was even final, but one underdog candidate fought on. Roque “Rocky” De La Fuente is a unique Democratic candidate for President in this year’s election. He is socially liberal but fiscally conservative; he is not a polished politician but rather is an extremely accomplished entrepreneur; he is a minority Democratic candidate (Hispanic) in a year when none are featured; and he has been treated unfairly by the party rather than embraced by it.
The self-proclaimed “Party of Inclusion” has worked hard to exclude De La Fuente, but he has not let that stop him. He and his team are in New Hampshire meeting people, talking politics with the locals, and parking their campaign buses and cars everywhere they might be seen.
O’Malley was given a free ride by the party. He was automatically placed on state ballots where those decisions were made behind closed doors by party leadership or by Secretaries of State whom the party controls.
On the other hand, De La Fuente has not been given that courtesy in any state. Instead, he has had to earn the right to be on the ballot in those states that permit access through signature petition. Even though this takes an enormous amount of time and money, De La Fuente has successfully overcome these barriers. In fact, he caught and passed O’Malley at the end of December with respect to the number of state primaries and caucuses for which he qualified. In many cases, De La Fuente was the first person in history to overcome the complex rules and ridiculously high signature requirements that some states put in place to keep candidates like him off the ballot.
When O’Malley and De La Fuente competed for ballot access on a level playing field with the same rules, as the two did in the critical swing state of Ohio, De La Fuente successfully qualified while O’Malley did not. Yet, the DNC inexplicably continued to tout O’Malley while refusing to even respond to De La Fuente’s requests to communicate. The debates are additional evidence of the injustice. O’Malley was invited while De La Fuente was not. Ironically, this even included the Brown and Black Forum, which is designed to address minority issues.