Any Virginia freepers know about this Michael Osborne court case?
I don't know if this is true. If it is, Gingrich and Perry have a legitimate case for having their names placed on the ballot.
FYI. I don’t know if this is newsworthy or not, but if true it may be helpful to the Gingrich and Perry campaigns.
If this report is true, then every single argument from the “rules are rules” crowd is totally blown out of the water. Every single one of them.
And yes- if this report is true - then Newt and Perry would certainly have a case and maybe the others as well.
The other question is: What purpose does the Virginia ballot access process serve (the answer is obvious)? Other states only require registration and the payment of fee.
Virginia May Have Improperly Excluded Signatures From Perry, Gingrich. a Recount May Be Needed!
I’m no fan of Romney, Gingrich, or Perry.
That the Gingrich and Perry organizations didn’t bother to collect signatures to the level where they could stand scrutiny (and that’s the name of the game for petitions like this) regardless of the Osborne case.
It bugs me that McDonnell doesn’t weigh in and that he can be seen as possibly not being even-handed.
“Oh, gee, we didn’t know the state party changed the policy because they got sued!”
So? That’s exactly the reason you have state and local campaign organizations. So that you have folks who know the area, know the players, and keep abreast of what’s happening in the area that might affect the campaign. That’s exactly the reason you pay lawyers good money. So that you have folks who keep an eye on the election statutes and case law and regs. So that you know stuff like this is coming down before the filing deadline and send guys out to get more sigs. So that you’re NOT standing there with your thumb up your bum after you get disqualified going “waitwutthatain’tfayerrrrrr...” Things like that are exactly the boring minutiae you need to take care of if you’re running a serious campaign. You know, the kind of thing That Woman was getting hazed pretty mercilessly around here for not getting handled. Well, what were the “serious” campaigns doing all those months? Because it really doesn’t appear as if they were getting prepared to handle it, either.
Stuff like this doesn’t really make me think “Oh, you poor things, your candidates got screwed.” No, it makes me think “I already thought your guys were sloppy. Now I think they’re complete flippin’ amateurs.”
The VA GOP published a letter that announced that any candidate who submitted a petition with more than 15,000 signatures would not be checked (’shall be deemed to have met the threshold for qualification and will be certified’).
The letter is at http://www.rpv.org/sites/default/files/2012%20Petition%20Certification%20Process_1.pdf
Romney submitted 16,000 signatures. Newt submitted 12,000.
I am curious to know when the VA GOP invented the 15K Safe Harbor rule. The letter from the VA GOP is undated (which is itself curious). The PDF file contains a hidden Microsoft Word creation date of 12/21/2011.
Why wouldn’t they check signatures?
/Author(Dave Rexrode) /Creator( Microsoft Word 2010 ) /CreationDate(D:20111221100053-05'00') /ModDate(D:20111221100053-05'00') /Producer( Microsoft Word 2010 )
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This was changed in May however there is precedent in VA for the court overruling the State Board of Elections rules to allow candidates on the ballot. This is not over.
Bunch of effin professional election law professors on the threads yesterday.
Seems like some pigs are more equal, eh?
What a mess.
Obambi will get a second term because of stuff like this, and I think the GOP wants him to.
If in the past signatures were not check and the GOP did not instruct that the procedure this time would change before Newt’s committee collected them then he a case. Virginia GOP responsibility was to inform all candidates of the new rule so the new procedure could be followed. This stinks to hell and smells like a conspiracy..
An independent only has to have a hundred or so. And legitimate candidates have to have 10,000. Virginia you have a problem.
Is this enough ground for letting Newt & Perry? I mean, if the rule is there, that the previous administration didn’t check it doesn’t negate the current checking, does it? Isn’t it like we complain when the bouncer starts to look at the IDs?
By now, I just equate the bunch of them to the Keystone Kops.
I have NEVER been so disappointed in potential candidates! They are making all of us laughingstocks and are going to give this country completely over to the dark forces (no pun intended!).
I am...in a word...disgusted!
Period