Fiasco: Bachmann, Huntsman, Santorum fail to make Virginia ballot

That’s not even the worst part. The worst part is that Perry and Gingrich, either one of whom could still become the Great Grassroots Hope against Romney, might not have qualified either. You need 10,000 signatures to make the ballot but 15,000 are recommended since a bunch are bound to be thrown out as false or duplicative as the petitions are scrutinized. You also need at least 600 signatures from each of Virginia’s 11 congressional districts. Romney submitted 16,026 and Ron Paul submitted 14,361. Perry’s total: 11,911. Gingrich’s: 11,050. If they end up getting bounced, the Republican primary ballot for one of America’s key swing states will consist exclusively of … Mitt Romney and Ron Paul.

Larry Sabato expects the state GOP will turn a “blind eye” to any signature problems on Perry’s or Gingrich’s petitions. I’ll bet. Question for political junkies, then: How could Bachmann, Huntsman, and Santorum have failed this epically? Is it a simple matter of lacking the resources to put people in the field collecting signatures or is it a sign of deep organizational dysfunction that should rightly disqualify them from the race?

I won't vote for Romney, either, Hildy, not even on a hot winter day in North Dakota. It might come down to writing someone in.

Sad to watch the Alinsky principles in heavy use this year, by Republicans.

Interesting that few of prominence stood up for Herman Cain.

I think the fix is in and they are just cleaning up a few loose ends at this point.

If Romney is the candidate, I will break with the GOP (not that they'll care about that...), if enough of us do, we may have a chance to fix things someday after the smoke clears...

16 posted on Thursday, December 22, 2011 8:37:35 PM by COgamer: “I can see a fantastic backfire in the making, if Paul wins both Iowa and Virginia. Wouldn’t be able to chalk it up to a one-state fluke. Then in a few months everyone can express confusion over how he got the nomination when no one wanted him.”

Remember the French elections a few years ago when Le Pen and the National Front actually took second-place and made it into the runoff election? Le Pen might not be radical by American standards, but by French standards he's viewed about like rational Republicans view Ron Paul, and to see Ron Paul as the only person besides Romney on the ballot would be a deep embarrassment to everybody else who **DIDN'T** qualify.

I defended Gingrich when he didn't get on the Missouri primary ballot, which is an old-fashioned “beauty contest” that carries no delegates and is unrelated to the Missouri Republican caucuses which select the actual GOP delegates.

However, Virginia is not a minor state, and their ballot is a real race. On top of that, it's next door to the media machine of Washington, D.C., which will give this fiasco lots of play. The spectacle of a primary ballot with Mitt Romney and Ron Paul as the only candidates is enough to make Republicans look like unprepared idiots.

I've said it over and over again. How did we, as conservatives with a stellar opportunity to defeat Barack Obama, get ourselves into this mess? We have screwed up, big time, and now we're stuck with a list of candidates that simply do not represent our best and brightest — and it now appears that many of our candidates aren't even bright enough to get on the ballot.

This should not have happened. Only Barack Obama can be happy about this news.

24 posted on Thursday, December 22, 2011 8:48:24 PM by Smokin’ Joe: “Interesting. So, fellow FReepers, in a contest between Willard and Ron Paul, who would you vote for?”

Until today, I said I could not imagine anything that would cause me to vote for a third party.

Having to choose between Romney and Paul would do it, because it would show the party has abandoned core principles without even a viable conservative minority. The primary purpose of government is to protect its people. Romney, in the recent past, was a backer of baby-killlers. Paul wants to gut our national defense. Both are unacceptable.

I never imagined that we'd be in this position. As another Freeper put it, where do these people get their campaign staffs? As a high school student many years ago before the internet and cell phones, I was responsible for running a half-dozen precincts with a bunch of volunteers under me. I know what it takes to get petition signatures. I don't know Virginia, but I am fairly confident that even as a high school student, I could have done a better job of gathering signatures than these three Republican candidates apparently did.

THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR THIS. PERIOD.

Now let's move on and figure out how to recover from this fiasco.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.