I wouldn’t doubt for a second that Willard was behind this...
Not just him, the entire Republican Establishment. They care more about wielding power than doing what's best for the country. As such, they hate conservatives.
So, you think Mitt ROmney was running around preventing people from signing Newt Gingrich petitions?
It is apparently a hard process, but all Perry, Gingrich, Santorum, and Bachmann had to do was get 15,000 people who appeared to be registered voters to sign petitions, 600 in each of 11 districts.
They could have done this at the general election.