Posted on 12/24/2011 7:43:46 AM PST by Dubya-M-DeesWent2SyriaStupid!
(AP)WASHINGTON — Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has failed to qualify for Virginia's March 6 Republican primary, a development that complicates his bid to win the GOP presidential nomination.
"After verification, RPV has determined that Newt Gingrich did not submit required 10K signatures and has not qualified for the VA primary," the Republican Party of Virginia announced early Saturday on its Twitter website.
Perry also fell short of the 10,000 signatures of registered voters required for a candidate's name to be on the primary ballot, but former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Texas Rep. Ron Paul will be on the ballot.
State GOP spokesman Garren Shipley said volunteers spent Friday validating petitions that the four candidates submitted by the Thursday 5 p.m. deadline to the State Board of Elections. Shipley was not available early Saturday to discuss the announcement posted on the website.
Failing to get on the ballot will be a major setback for Gingrich, who has tried to use his recent upsurge in popularity to make up for a late organizing start. Ironically, Gingrich had a slight lead over Romney, with others farther back, in a Quinnipiac poll of Virginia Republicans released earlier in the week.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
This is a Virginia problem.”
Virginia may have the most transperent issue, but the problem of the entrenched politicians protecting themselves through rules making it tough for challengers is a problem for all states and is not confined to the GOP.
We have 50 different sets of state rules for a reason — under a capitalist or a federalist system, different companies and different states are free to make their own choices so they can see what works best for them. I have no problem with Virginia's rules; they're designed to winnow out people who can't meet certain minimal standards of organizational ability. Other states have dozens of candidates on the ballot, and that's fine, too.
States can set their own rules and that's not a bad thing. Iowa and New Hampshire are designed to test grassroots support and door-to-door campaigning ability, basically forcing presidential candidates to campaign as if they were running for mayor or city council or county commissioner. That's not a bad thing because it allows underdogs to rise to the top and defeat candidates with tons of money who lack grassroots support. Other states have rules designed to reward those with major amounts of funding to buy television ads and mount aggressive statewide campaigns.
The problem here is not that Romney got people thrown off the ballot — even if he did, all that means is one candidate followed the rules and made sure everybody else did, too. The problem here is we've just had proven to us that neither the current governor of our largest Republican state nor the former Speaker of the House have sufficient organizational ability to get on the ballot of a major state like Virginia. That says bad things about Gingrich who wasn’t being taken seriously until recently, but it says especially bad things about Perry who has been a serious candidate for months now and should have gotten this handled long ago.
Furthermore, the “tea party movement” is supposed to be full of angry and highly motivated people. Gathering 10,000 signatures with a stated minimum from each congressional district would not have been a problem if the conservative base were fired up for a candidate. This shows not only that neither Gingrich nor Perry were sufficiently organized but also that neither candidate had strongly committed tea party supporters pulling out all the stops to work for them.
How in the blue blazes of heaven did we get into this situation? We have a fantastic chance to defeat President Barack Obama and we are throwing it out the window.
Yep!
1. Vote for the NOT MITT
2. Write In campaign. If the majority of the voters write in and coalesce around a candidate who gets more votes than Mitt and Paul, a legal challenge might be able to argue disenfranchisement of the majority trumps GOP rules.
Both options suck.
Theater? Blaming the process is not going to get a candidate anywhere. I was hoping for a long process. That is how Obama got so many e-mail addresses and volunteers. Organization!!! This is how you win in presidential politics. You must outwork the other side. Romney has been running for 6 years. It takes money volunteers and organization. I find it incomprehensible you can’t get 400 signatures in each congressional district and 10K total. How can a candidate run a smart disciplined campaign without an organization? The rules are not secret. Newt and Perry are flailing. It is sad to see.
So if the courts are running around saying voter id creates disenfranchisement, what does this do?
Post of the year.
I don’t champion anyone. And I’m sure I’m to the right of you.
You’re a liar. I’ve never voted for Ron Paul.
Because Bachmann, Santorum, Huntsman are vanity candidates with no shot at winning, or even placing.
you can keep repeating the lie that Gingrich and Perry didn’t get 10,000 signatures, over and over. But that doesn’t make it so.
Both Gingrich and Perry turned in 1000’s of signatures over the requirement.
Someone, then threw out 1000’s of those signatures.
Who was that someone? what campaign are they affiliated with? how many signatures of Romney’s were thrown out?
these are the questions we should be asking.
Between Romney and Paul, I’d pick Romney. But I’m pretty sure I’ll be writing in Bugs Bunny or not showing up for the primaries. The GOP field—top to bottom—is an absolute disgrace.
How long have these rules been in place? My understanding is the same rules were in place in 2008 and everyone managed to get through the hoops.
Romney=half-dozen
But Zero who is non qualified makes it?
The bureaucracy wants to be served, and no, we shall not be served by the bureaucracy.... suckers
I’ve never voted for or supported Ron Paul. Titan is a liar, and you’re a clown. Piss off.
I am still confused (see my last post with the links)It looks like 10K signatures was required then 15K was and ObamneyCare had 15K..
LOL. What a mess this is. I really think Obama has a good shot at re-election.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/rick-perry-disqualified-from-virginia-primary-ballot/
(excerpt)
Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman did not turn in signatures and therefore failed to qualify.
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