Tulsan Doty Decides to Run for President Once Again, Draws National Attention

Tulsa's Charles Doty ran for president 1996, but had decided not to run again in 2000. Now he's changed his mind, and his low budget campaign is about to get some national exposure.<br><br>We

Thursday, March 16th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Tulsa's Charles Doty ran for president 1996, but had decided not to run again in 2000. Now he's changed his mind, and his low budget campaign is about to get some national exposure.

We first met Charles Doty four years ago, when the harmonica-playing straight-talking retired accountant ran for president. He complained at the time he was ignored by the media, and couldn't get his message to the public. Now he's back on the campaign trail, with a chance to reach a national audience.

A late-night cable comedy show is following his no-budget campaign 2000. Doty was meeting voters in the Wal-Mart parking lot Thursday, for no apparent reason speaking through a bullhorn, playing it up for the cameras, and pleasing a couple of voters who stopped by.

The Comedy Central program "The Daily Show" is carrying the Doty banner, in hopes of injecting humor into the election. "If George W drops the 'W', and Doty picks up the 'W', I think he could pick up two or three states just based on that 'W' alone," said Comedy Central's Vance DeGeneres.

Doty has kept the campaign van that served him in the last four races, and plans to meet as many people as he can, with hopes of inspiring the electorate to write in "D-O-T-Y."
He knows he'll probably lose the election, but he's campaigning with the belief that you can't win, if you don't enter.

Doty only had the money to qualify for the presidential race in Kansas. The filing fees in Kansas are lower than in Oklahoma. His profile will air on Comedy Central at the end of this month.