Posted on 12/24/2011 8:20:24 AM PST by shield
For those coming in late, let me summarize*: both Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry have been excluded from the Virginia Republican primary by the Virginia GOP. This has placed the VA GOP in an awkward situation, given that: they have excluded the current national and Virginian front-runner from their own ballot; have currently no write-in option on the ballot; do have an open primary that anyone can vote in; and generally have created an environment peculiarly suited for conspiracy theories involving Mitt Romney (and ones that won’t contain the word ‘Mormon’ anywhere in their description, by the way). The current defenses to all of this are “rules are rules” and “any campaign that couldn’t follow them are by definition poor campaigns:” I will leave it to the individual reader to decide just how either argument will play in, say, Peoria; I am frankly of the opinion that the above defenses are well-suited towards reassuring Romney and/or Paul voters – and will do very little to persuade the other 60-65% or so of likely Republican primary voters.
But since I’m telling Mitt Romney what won’t help his situation, it kind of behooves me to tell him what might.
(Excerpt) Read more at redstate.com ...
In 2008, McCain, Huckabee, Paul, Romney, Thompson, and Giuliani got on the ballot with the latter three suspending their campaign prior to the primary. This conspiracy nonsense is a bit tiresome. The ones responsible for not getting on the ballot are the candidates, not the rules.
The rest is left as an exercise for the reader.
The people who are unstable are those who claim to be conservative, claim to love freedom, claim to want a change in DC - and yet hold fast to a system that is clearly set up to enforce the power of unelected bureaucrats (within the Va GOP) and clearly set up to favor the perennial candidates (Paul and Mitt) and clearly set up to favor the well connected (Mitt and Va’s LT Gov) and clearly set up to favor the rich candiates (ability to pay drones to go collect signatures.)
Anyone who favors such an intellectually bankrupt system - and does so on the “rules are rules” mentality - is clearly intellectually “UNSTABLE.”
Who is most likely to volunteer to be a bean counter in Virgina? My guess is that Paulbots (who all live in their mothers basement and have nothing else to do) and Romneybots (who are mostly dedicated Mormons looking to fulfill the White Horse Prophecy) are eagerly going to volunteer to decertify all the signatures of the other candidates.
Since Paul and Romney did not have to have any of their ballots certified, none of their supporters should have been allowed within 100 miles of the place where these signatures were reviewed.
You seem TOO happy about this, troll.
bs both Gingrich and Perry got FAR more than the required signatures.
thousands of the signatures they turned it were thrown out.
who threw them out? who were these people checking the signatures? were they Romney campaign chairmen? Obama supporters?
we don’t know, all we KNOW is that both Gingrich and Perry were denied access to the ballot by persons unknown after more than meeting the requirements.
Seems pretty cut and dry for me... something is rotten in Virginia, and both Perry and Gingrich should take this to court.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2815463/posts
You might read this first, then notice Post #5. Since you are running down “Newt Worshipers”. (I’ll ping Jim later if you keep this up much longer.)
No, YOU are talking shit. I said plainly the rules in play are the rules in play and if you don't adapt to the rules in play then you lose. In Ohio we were taught if you needed 10K Sigs to qualify then you better have 15K or more and even then you could come up short.
Our Goal was always Double or more signatures and that is with the idea we worked hard on establishing the Signatures we were getting were valid beforehand by way of extensive questions of those we were getting signatures from.
Newt barely qualified in Ohio and I hear that Ohio isn't challenging Signatures like they have in the past. (We got a lot of new GOP blood in Ohio now after the Taft fiasco.)
Oh, I get it now. Since you are part of the signature collecting apparatus - something that bores the sh-t out of most folks - then that’s why you are supporting such an arbitrary and out dated system.
The signature system lost all viability with the internet, cable, social networking. It is designed to be old school and favor those well connected and well funded. It has long outlived its usefulness.
But since it’s a rule and it is written, you support it. Brilliant.
Now this is one primary I could boycott and I think it would be a good idea for Virginia Republicans to boycott it too. If you could vote for a write-in, it would be different but unless you ACTUALLY want to vote for Romney or Paul, I’d stay home.”
Not me. If the majority of the voters write in candidates, then the votes count, because disenfranchisment of voters trumps party rules(or so the argument goes).
Virginia's Lt. Governor plays a major role in Romney's campaign. (No conspiracy there by golly)
I’m gonna tell, I’m gonna tell.
No address in some states, the signature gets tossed out.
Sheesh! You'd think someone would have found out what was required.
That kind of poor preparation is a ticket to failure.
And yes, you try to double the required number, just to compensate for signatures that do not check out.
This isn't news, at least for those who have been in the trenches.
This morning, Gingrich’s campaign released this response:
Richmond, VA – Newt 2012 released the following statement from Campaign Director Michael Krull regarding ballot qualification in Virginia.
“Only a failed system excludes four out of the six major candidates seeking access to the ballot. Voters deserve the right to vote for any top contender, especially leading candidates. We will work with the Republican Party of Virginia to pursue an aggressive write-in campaign to make sure that all the voters of Virginia are able to vote for the candidate of their choice.”
That darn "failed system"!
UPDATE: And… no write-in options, either! Doug Mataconis and Ed Morrissey observe the relevant Virginia law:
At all elections except primary elections it shall be lawful for any voter to vote for any person other than the listed candidates for the office by writing or hand printing the person’s name on the official ballot.
The 2008 Virginia GOP presidential primary counted no write-in votes.
Yep. It is really getting interesting. I am going to stock up on popcorn.
If the Perry/Gingrich campaigns had turned in 2 million signatures, but fewer than 10K were REGISTERED VOTERS in VA, and fewer than 400 were REGISTERED VOTERS in the state’s 11 Congressional Districts, they were disqualified. Pretty simple, actually.
The signatures were cross-checked against REGISTERED VOTERS in Virginia. By volunteers who gave up a day over the Christmas holiday to go to Richmond for this exercise. Individuals like you and me. Volunteers whose activity was monitored by representatives of each of the disqualified candidates’ campaigns.
I was asked to go (as were some other FReepers) but couldn’t make it. But, had I given up my day to perform this civic service, reading the crap on these threads would infuriate the hell out of me. It infuriates me not having given up my day. Because it is all ignorant, conspiratorial BS.
The fact is, not ONE campaign asked me or anyone in my household to sign a petition. Not one.
It's not just them. The VA GOP also threw out thousands of signatures for Bachmann, Santorum and Huntsman. They didn't even look at any of the signatures from Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck that Romney and Paul submitted.
I suspect that if all the signatures of all the candidates were subjected to the same scrutiny, then there would be no candidates on the Virgina GOP primary.
There is a lawsuit brewing.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
You are right.. It is the candidate fault..
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