Roemer Announces 2012 Presidential Bid

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Former Louisiana Gov. Charles "Buddy" Roemer is an official candidate for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.

Roemer announced Thursday that he's formed an exploratory committee for his White House bid.

The 67-year-old will travel to Iowa next week for one of his first events as a candidate.

His candidacy is a long shot at best.

A former congressman out of elected office since the early 1990s, Roemer served one term as governor, from 1988 to 1992, switching from the Democratic Party to the GOP while running for re-election. He lost his re-election bid, pushed out of a runoff by Democrat Edwin Edwards and former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. Edwards won that race.

Roemer says he won't accept more than $100 per donor in his presidential campaign and won't accept money from political action committees.