Plan C: Third-Party Run A Daunting Task For GOP Establishment

WASHINGTON — Hopes of stopping Donald Trump short of the Republican nomination ahead of this summer’s convention came to a crashing end Tuesday night after Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas dropped out of the race following his loss in Indiana.

What hope remains is being channeled into a Plan C: Have another Republican run for office in addition to Trump.

Around Washington, chatter about the possibility of an independent run by a traditional conservative is becoming louder. It is fueled in part by the business end of the political cycle: Campaign consultants eagerly await — and financially plan for — the quadrennial, billion-dollar payday that is a presidential election.

Rest assured, the Donald Trump campaign will offer no shortage of opportunities for grifters. But if you’ve been a charter member of the Washington establishment, your calls probably aren’t getting returned as quickly as you might like, especially if you’ve spent the past half-year typing the #NeverTrump hashtag into your Twitter feed.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/plan-c-republican-establishment-chattering-about-a-third-party-run_us_57295dcbe4b016f378941d68