Posted on 12/24/2011 10:37:52 AM PST by Jim Robinson
~~snip~~
"A Gingrich campaign official prior to the move by the Republican Party of Virginia said the problem is how the rules are set up, arguing that the party is, for apparently the first time, cross-checking the addresses that signature-givers gave against the electronic voter database file for accuracies. A name without a proper address match was tossed, the official said."
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
“What you fail to see is, Newt didn’t have the money at the critical time he needed to pay people to do the ground work for him.”
And who’s fault is that? He’s been running for almost a year now. Why didn’t he put the money that he’s been collecting in all that time towards his bills that were surely coming up?
Did he not expect that he would get this far along? Did he not collect enough money to see himself through?
Could he not get enough supporters (re - Volunteers), people willing to do the work for him because they like him and believe him to be the best thing for America?
What’s the excuse now?
“There is so much about this that you are totally ignorant about.”
I have done this work. I have worked as a canvasser previously, subject to verification, in opposition to the state which ran millions of dollars of ads against us. We won, because we collected way more than we needed to run, and because we were able to successfully recruit enough people to go out there and collect. All on a shoestring budget.
I am telling you, in my opinion, getting 20+ percent over what you needed, is not good enough. It opens the possibility, as we saw here, to get enough invalidated to not qualify for the ballot. The gold standard, that Newt did not reach, was 50 percent over. Had he collected 15k signatures, I guarantee you he would be on the ballot. He did not.
“It’s not at all, that Newt was just simply incompetent or lacked organization. He simply lacked the funding to pay for such a ridiculous rule.”
Not having the organization or the funding to run a successful ground campaign on this level in VA, is evidence that his organization at this point is just not there. This is shocking.
All of us thought that this was a strength of Newt, his past political experience, his staffers, his connections, etc, and then in crunch time, we see that he failed.
“There are people there who are challenging this for some very obvious legal reasons.”
Yeah, like the fact that they didn’t work hard enough before today so they are hoping to rewrite the rules.
20 percent getting tossed out? And from what I see of the petitions submitted, I see shoddy, shoddy work. This was badly done for Newt. But what do I know? I canvass for professionals, who wouldn’t even accept canvasser sheets that were so poorly done.
He is welcome to challenge it but I don’t think challenging the verification process is going to help him succeed. This is a wakeup call.
Says upthread that RP did not qualify either. he was simply grandfathered in as was Romney due to being on the ballot in '08.
I have not seen confirmation of that info independently, but if so, then the procedure is flawed, not the candidate's endeavors.
We are all behind you 100% “P” Let us know how we can help!
Screw the “Rules are Rules” flock of brain dead sheep!
Off to the family. Merry Christmas! Enjoyed the chat, but at end point, we know-— His will be done. -:)
P-Marlowe
“Why are you going out of your way to help Romney?”
I’m a Cain supporter. I believe, then and now, that he was the one who could beat Romney and Obama.
Given the shoddy work here, I no longer believe that Newt can get the job done.
So, we need to get someone who can win and can beat Romney and can beat Obama, since Newt can’t do it, then who?
We still have time now, to get it right. But we don’t have much of it. The decisions that are made today are going to have a huge impact down the line, and will determine what happens in November.
Last I checked VA was an Obama state. Do you really believe that if Newt can’t get on the ballot here that he can beat Obama in a state that he needs to win?
For whatever reason Romney and Ron Paul did not undergo the certification process in 2012. Presumably it is because they were grandfathered in from 2008 somehow. (Ditto Obama)
The actual details are still unclear. It seems to be related to getting 15,000 sigs. We don’t know if the 15,000 sigs refers to 2008 or 2012. It is also unclear if the 15,000 number is enshrined somewhere in VA state law or is just a rule in the VA GOP.
>> Last I checked VA was an Obama state. Do you really believe that if Newt can’t get on the ballot here that he can beat Obama in a state that he needs to win? >>
Totally flawed analogy. Newt is leading the polls in Va. by a pretty good margin last I checked. Signature gathering is an out of date and totally irrelevant measurement of support. No one needs to have a Paul Tard or a Mitt Bot knock on their door to vote. They just need to vote.
I hope you will hear from someone who was there in '08 and present yesterday.
It's a mess and the timing is awful: Christmas.
Good that Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are today and Sunday, so that come Monday, we will know more.
Merry Christmas!
Enjoy! Thanks very much, dear Vin!
A most Blessed and Merry CHRISTmas to you and your family!!!
I’ve read two or three of Benkonobi’s posts so far and not seen any logical analysis that holds water yet....
You just don’t listen to good advice, do you. You are about to find out that you are not as clever as you think you are.
A lot of us on this board stood behind Cain, but he gave up.
MERRY CHRISTMAS! Mr. Jim! (And to your family) Let’s plan another decade at FRee Republic! (More now than ever!)
“No, it’s inexcusable if you are a state in these United States of America and you boot the leading candidate for the presidency of one of the major parties off your ballot.”
Sir, with all due respect.
I’ve been a fringe ‘one percenter’. I’ve worked for ‘fringe one percenters’. I’ve helped them get on the ballot, stay on the ballot and run their campaigns.
Some have won. Some have lost. Some were just happy to be there. But every single one of them, had to meet their ballot requirements and restrictions to get on the ballot. And yes, many were more stringent then the requirements here in VA.
My job was to get those names, however I could. Was it easy? Sometimes, it wasn’t difficult at all. Sometimes it was a real challenge.
“This is no one percenter unheard of off the wall fringe party candidate. Neither is governor Perry or congresswoman Bachmann. It’s a disgrace to our constitutional republic!!”
I’m shocked that none of the candidates could get together a list of 15k people in the state of Virginia. If it’s true that Romney and Paul were validated due to being on the ballot last time, I agree with you wholeheartedly.
However, if they did get the signatures, and they did pass verification, then yes, the ballot should be just Romney and Paul in the state of Virginia.
I was here when Joe Miller, won the republican nomination, and they put Lisa Mrurkowski on the ballot anyways. We now have Senator Mrurkowski.
I’m not going to back any candidate who pushes similar shenanigans here. We can’t suppor the rules when the favor us and stop supporting the rules when the don’t.
I don’t believe that 15k candidates is an unreasonable number for the state of VA. I’ve seen higher requirements for lower positions than the republican nomination for the president of the united states.
Oh. OK. Thanks. Great News.
whenever I moved re registering was one of the first things I did, within the first month to be sure.
I sure wouldn’t have signed a petition with an address that I wasn’t regitered at!
I gotta run now, but keep up the good fight. What these not so smart “rules are the rules” idgits are not thinking about is what is their “way” gets held up? Think about it.
Say Newt is leading national polls, and even Virginia polls, and Perry is say third or fourth in the polls, and Virginia holds its primary. But it’s only Mitt versus Paul. Think about that. It will be considered the biggest exercise in futility in primary history. Virginia, McDonnell, Mitt and Paul will be national embarrassments. There will be no winner and Virginia’s GOP will be judged the big loser.
But hey, the “rules are the rules” crowd will get to see what is the ultimate idiocy of their meme.
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