By Paul Bedard | Colorado Springs Gazette
In late 1995, Republican presidential candidate Steve Forbes had a problem. Instead of pulling out his checkbook and paying to get on state primary ballots, he chose to do it the old-fashioned way and get thousands of signatures on petitions, and it wasn’t going well.
As the deadline for the petitions in Rhode Island neared, staffer Doug Heye and two others headed to the Ocean State to finish the job.
“Now I’ve never been to Rhode Island before. There’s a foot of snow on the ground. And we’re, like, what do we do? The malls were empty the week before Christmas. I called back to the home office and said we’re not getting this done. This is not happening. You got to do something else,” Heye recalled.
But it was too late. Forbes did not appear on the GOP primary ballot and eventually pulled out of the race won by then-Sen. Bob Dole.