Free Republic

As many of you know, The Last Federalist had previously endorsed Chris Perkins for Congress. However, after much consideration, the Editorial Board is rescinding that endorsement..... .... What is even more disconcerting is the lack of a ground game by the Perkins campaign. Whether it is their voter identification program or the lack of signs in the median, the Perkins campaign has been unable to prove that they have the organization and campaign strategy necessary to win in November. The fact that there is a growing concern that Ken Vaughn might actually win on June 12th, shows how weak and...

A federal appeals court in Virginia today denied an emergency request by Republican presidential hopefuls Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich to be placed on the ballot for the Virginia primary. After failing to get the required 10,000 signatures necessary to be placed on the ballot, the two candidates argued that Virginia’s strict ballot law was unconstitutional. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit agreed with a lower court and ruled today that the candidates had waited too long to file their suit. The court ruled unanimously that Perry and the other candidates “had every...

The United State Court of Appeal, Fourth Circuit, has denied an appeal by Rick Perry and the three other plaintiffs’ who filed suit to get on the Virginia GOP primary ballot. The circuit judges today said that, “For the reasons expressed herein, the court denies the motion for the requested injunctive relief.” They cited the impending deadline to send out absentee ballots, by Jan. 21. In the ruling papers, the judges also said, “Movant had every opportunity to challenge the various Virginia ballot requirements at a time when the challenge would not have created the disruption that this last-minute lawsuit...

Following a hearing in Richmond today, U.S. district judge John Gibney ruled against Rick Perry's challenge to the Virginia ballot rules. In his opinion, Gibney says Perry, and the other candidates who joined the challenge, waited too long to bring the suit. "They knew the rules in Virginia many months ago; the limitations on circulators affected them as soon as they began to circulate petitions," he writes. "They plaintiffs could have challenged the Virginia law at that time. Instead, they waited until after the time to gather petitions had ended and they had lost the political battle to be on...

A federal judge is preventing Virginia from printing ballots until he issues a ruling on Texas Gov. Rick Perry's ballot challenge. U.S. District Judge John A. Gibney Jr. has ordered the Virginia State Board of Elections to send directives to each of the state's local boards, telling them not to print any absentee ballots until after the emergency motion is heard on Friday. Virginia's primary is on March 6th. In order to get absentee ballots mailed overseas in time, Virginia needed to start printing ballots this weekend, and mailing them out by Jan 21.

Cuccinelli, a Republican, said in a statement Saturday that ballot access laws need to be changed not for any candidate, but for the voters. On Sunday, however, Cuccinelli issued a statement saying that while he favors reducing hurdles to getting on the Virginia ballot, he “will not support efforts to apply such changes to the 2012 Presidential election.”

Texas Gov. Rick Perry's campaign has gotten its court date in Virginia. U.S. District Judge John Gibney Jr. has set a hearing on the validity of Virginia's primary ballot for Jan 13th. Before that hearing, the judge is requiring that the Perry campaign reach out to the other Republican candidates, to see if they would be interested in joining either side of the suit. Perry Communications director Ray Sullivan says the campaign will "respect and abide by that order." In fact, Sullivan says Perry would "welcome other candidate involvement." Virginia has some of the country's toughest ballot requirements. Only two...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s campaign said on Tuesday that it is filing a lawsuit to get on the ballot in the Virginia primary election after state officials announced last week that he failed to turn in the requisite 10,000 signatures. "Virginia ballot access rules are among the most onerous and are particularly problematic in a multicandidate election,” said Perry campaign Communications Director Ray Sullivan in a statement. “We believe that the Virginia provisions unconstitutionally restrict the rights of candidates and voters by severely restricting access to the ballot, and we hope to have those provisions overturned or modified to provide...

This just keeps getting better and better for the Virginia GOP, doesn’t it? Via Ballot Access News, first we get the Attorney General for Virginia pointing out that the requirements for ballot access are far too restrictive: _____________________________________________________ I would throw out for consideration that we should lower our requirements to 100 legitimate signatures per congressional district. Let’s face it, absent a serious write-in challenge from some other candidate, Virginia won’t be nearly as ‘fought over’ as it should be in the midst of such a wide open nomination contest. Our own laws have reduced our relevance. Sad. _____________________________________________________ …and...