Posted on 12/23/2011 10:20:59 PM PST by Plutarch
UPDATE (12.53am): Sources at RPV are telling me that the 2,000 signatures do not have addresses on them meaning that they cannot be verified. Newt Gingrich may very well be off the ticket in Virginia, folks
Rumor has it this evening that one of the petition gatherers was not qualified to circulate petitions which technically disqualifies those signatures in Virginia.
This would mean that the only two campaigns that qualified in the Virginia primary will be Ron Paul and Mitt Romney.
However and theres always a however former State Senator Marty Williams back in 2007 was accused of having a handler circulate petitions to get him on the ballot that was not legally able to do so. The court ruled that, though the petitioner was not legally entitled to circulate the petitions, the enfranchisement of those who did sign the petitions trumped the lack of qualifications the petition gatherer held.
Ergo, even if this report is right, Gingrich will have the names needed to qualify for the Virginia ballot.
If
these reports are true
Yes, indeed, you’re right. Too bizarre.
I so want Iowa to be over! Sick of the daily polls coming from that state, along with the idiot pundits, none of whom are without their own bias.
Yeh me too. Well Merry Christmas. I finished my wine & I have to get up early tomorrow. Good night.
-PJ
The fix is obviously in. Whatever you think of Newt’s political views this just isn’t something that happens without a lot of backstory to go along with it.
Whatever political game is being played here just underscores that our entire election system is hopelessly broken and corrupt.
It should be more or less physically IMPOSSIBLE for a leader in the polls of likely voters to fail to get enough signatures... unless the process is so convoluted that it is easy for establishment types to screw with a few key districts and keep someone out.
This whole situation doesn’t pass the smell test.
Gosh I hope not! Didn’t used to be...and now with the conservative governor, Bob McDonnell, let’s hope not!
Not the part that I live in, if they hold elected office, we don’t like them one little bit. Throw out every single one of the bastards.
I agree with you, this seems pretty odd that all at once, nobody qualifies.
I don’t remember this happening in 2008.
“Isnt Virginia a squishy, Mittens kind of state anyway?”
No. But it might end up being one if only 2 people are on the ballot.
“GOP establishment sabotage?”
In the longer term, yes. In the short term: the rules are what they are. Perry and now it looks like Newt failed to quaify under those rules which are designed to keep the ballot “uncluttered.”
“Only Romney and Paul qualified, even though Newt and Perry turned in more than 10,000.”
You have to have more than the required mount of signatures as you can always expect some to be thrown out as illegible, invalid, etc.
The backstabbing, cowardly, ineligible RINO:
I may be ineligible and a RINO
willing to say anything or hurt anyone,
but I bet you $10,000 that the RNC will disqualify EVERYONE ELSE.
I don’t care what anybody says, if the GOP in Virginia has a primary with only Romney and Paul on the ballot they will look stupid as can be.
Not sure what all this is about signatures and addresses and I understand that rules are rules. Says something about campaign staffs if they couldn’t get this simple requirement completed.
STILL....the rest of the country will see Virginia as being ridiculous. Or, as you pointed out, orchestrated to end exactly like this.
Below, my take on why Newt’s a good candidate to be the GOP nominee:
http://patfish.blogspot.com/2011/12/thinking-about-newt-and-other-political.html
I think just Romney, Newt and Paul. VA is being stupid by having such a tough signature requirement so many weeks prior to the primary—campaigns have to spend money to gather signatures during Christmas season when they’re fighting for support in IA and NH.
If VA wants candidates to clear a high hurdle to appear on the ballot, fine, but don’t make the deadline prior to the IA caucuses; if this is how they ran things in 1996, I assume that Gramm made the VA ballot (despite not even making it to NH) but Buchanan couldn’t.
I see that not only did I not read the article, I didn’t even read the headline! If Newt doesn’t make the ballot, Romney and Paul will be the only names on tbe VA ballot. I think the state will set a new record for write-in votes.
This is an obvious act of algoration: the practice of using legal processes to manipulate election results. It is generally done by bringing suit on technical grounds in order to achieve a ruling by a judge who favors your political persuasion. It can be done by counting votes selectively in precincts favorable to your party and avoiding or rejecting counts from areas not favorable, such as military votes or Republican-heavy areas.
We must get this word in the dictionary; the practice is real and the foremost practitioner was indeed Al Gore.
I stand by Newt. But this is not Virginia’s fault. Why didn’t they get the signatures ? They could have with very little effort.
big deal . get a court order to have him put on the ballot . the liberals did that years ago with the nj senate seat
Richmond area has conservative talk shows and they could have come on there and would have been welcomed and easily got the signatures. This makes no sense and in a state where Newt had a good lead.
Sounds like Newt had a snake in the grass collecting sigs for him. Newt had this state won.
2 Gingrich voters in my house and this is disappointing. He was going to win Virginia !
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