Thread: Roque ‘Rocky’ De La Fuente is running for U.S. president — again

Column: Roque ‘Rocky’ De La Fuente is running for U.S. president — again

Roque “Rocky” De La Fuente is pictured during his 2016 Democratic campaign for president of the United States. He was in one of his fleet of nine traveling campaign buses during the Nevada caucus in Las Vegas. De La Fuente again has filed as a candidate for president in 2020. This time, he is running as a Republican. (Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times)


Local businessman is putting his personal fortune on the line to campaign against Donald Trump

By DIANE BELL COLUMNIST
OCT. 25, 2019 3:43 PM

One Republican who has the chutzpah to challenge Donald Trump for president in 2020 is wealthy San Diego businessman Roque De La Fuente, 65.

De La Fuente, who goes by “Rocky,” is nothing if not persistent. Known in San Diego for his family’s former longtime ownership of De La Fuente car dealerships, he was locked for nearly three decades in a legal battle with the City of San Diego over development of a border business park on 312 acres in Otay Mesa owned by De La Fuente. The impasse finally was resolved in 2015 with the city’s insurers agreeing, in part, to pay De La Fuente $25 million.

Known as a self-promoting, colorful character who possesses the tenacity of a bulldog and changes political parties when it suits him, De La Fuente jumped into the 2016 presidential race with lots of personal cash but no experience as a politician.

First he ran for the presidential nomination as a Democrat, then switched to an independent for the 2016 general election.

De La Fuente created a campaign video in which he dove into a pool wearing a finely tailored suit (predating actor Matthew McConaughey‘s well-dressed pool plunge in the 2017 Lincoln MKZ ad).

Miami Herald humor columnist Dave Barry wrote about coming across his “ROCKY” campaign motor home parked in Iowa, knocking on the window and asking,"Who’s Rocky?” A voice from inside responded, “I’m Rocky ... and I’m going to be the next president of the United States.”

“Before you dismiss him as merely a loon,” Barry cautioned his readers, “consider this: He is a loon with four buses in Iowa. Also he has a campaign staff of guys wearing ROCKY T-shirts.”

[This still shot is from a campaign video showing San Diego businessman Rocky De La Fuente as he plunged head-first into the 2016 U.S. presidential race.
( (Courtesy of Roque De La Fuente))

De La Fuente since has campaigned for mayor of New York and, in 2018, ran for U.S. Senate in nine different states simultaneously, including California (knowing if he won in any state primary, he could legally move to that state before the general election).


He received 135,279 votes (2.1 percent) among the candidates battling for Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s California seat in 2018 and attracted as much as 12.3 percent of the vote in Rhode Island and 11.4 percent in Florida U.S. Senate primaries.

The problem that political outsiders running for U.S. president encounter, of course, is getting their names on the ballot in each state.

As of Friday, De La Fuente had qualified for the 2020 ballot in three small states — Vermont, Delaware and Alabama. The optimistic candidate, though, says he plans to get on all the ballots in U.S. states and territories.

“Most people don’t know how difficult it is to qualify.

Each state has its own rules,” De La Fuente says, emphasizing that party politics play a key role.

“Hopefully, I will be added to one or two more state ballots each week.”

He definitely is in for a “rocky” road and an expensive ride. The rich landholder estimates he spent $9 million on his previous campaigns.

According to the Federal Election Commission, as of the end of September, he had amassed nearly $10.2 million for his 2020 presidential bid.

De La Fuente proudly points out that his campaign chest exceeds that of other GOP challengers of President Donald Trump.

Ballotpedia lists 138 GOP presidential contenders who had filed as of October but, of the best known ones, former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld had raised $1.3 million, past U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh had stockpiled $235,000 and former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford reported only $67,000.

Most of De La Fuente’s funds came from his personal loans to the campaign, augmented by a total of less than $7,000 from others, primarily family members and business associates.

De La Fuente contends he is willing to pay twice that amount if need be and is flush with income from his border-area properties. “San Diego’s been very, very good to me. Otay has been very good to me. I don’t have to worry for me and my children for the rest of my life,” he says.

He ran for the nine Senate seats in 2018, he explains, to achieve name recognition and awareness with the least expenditure possible.

“I’m now seasoned and understand ballot access. If you want to win the lottery, what do you have to do?

Buy lots of tickets. I need to be on the ballots if I’m going to have a chance.”

The rules can get complex for candidates who aren’t nominated by a major party, but most states have an election filing fee (the amount varies from state to state) and/or require petition signatures showing support. For instance, in Vermont and Delaware, De La Fuente needed to collect 1,000 signatures and in Alabama, he needed 500.

Last month, GOP party leaders in Alaska, Arizona, Kansas, Nevada and South Carolina canceled their Republican presidential primaries for the 2020 election as a show of support for Trump. It’s a move De La Fuente intends to legally challenge, starting with South Carolina and Arizona.

“It’s illegal, immoral and unethical,” he protests.

In short, the U.S. election system is broken, insists the black horse candidate. That is one of the main messages he wants to broadcast through his candidacy.

“I’m planning to make a very, very big effort and, hopefully, I’ll be able to make some political change.”

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com...resident-again

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