Posted on 12/24/2011 1:01:00 PM PST by Steelfish
Gingrich’s Ballot Miss Could Shake Voters’ Confidence
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE December 24, 2011
Newt Gingrich declared confidently the other day that he would get his name on the ballot for the Republican presidential primary in Virginia. In fact, he said he already had the requisite 10,000 signatures and an additional 2,000 to 3,000 for safety’s sake and would probably collect even more. Related
But that turned out not to be the case. In the wee hours of Saturday morning, the Virginia Republican Party announced via Twitter that Mr. Gingrich had failed to submit enough signatures by the Thursday deadline, highlighting the organizational challenges to his campaign and raising questions about his prospects in a drawn-out nominating fight.
Many of the Gingrich campaign’s signatures were apparently invalid, which is why most campaigns try to collect almost twice as many as needed. Gov. Rick Perry of Texas and Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota also failed to make the grade.
The Gingrich campaign said it would work with the Republican Party of Virginia to pursue a write-in campaign, but Virginia does not allow write-in names in its primaries.
“Voters deserve the right to vote for any top contender, especially leading candidates,” Michael Krull, Mr. Gingrich’s campaign director, said in a statement.
This misstep is bad news for Mr. Gingrich on several levels. Virginia is his adopted home state. Failing to gather enough signatures in your own backyard creates an image problem, at the very least.
“It’s a disaster for him,” said Larry J. Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia. “This sends yet another signal to Republicans that Gingrich is not able to organize.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
As was yours.
whatever!
The rule is the rule. Get the signatures or get lost. The only thing rotten going on is how stupid the boneheads running for prez are. Only 2 qualified? what a disgrace!
There are over five million registered voters in Virginia. How difficult is it to get 15,000 - 20,000 signatures?
That’s less than 1/2 of one percent.
http://www2.wsls.com/news/2008/oct/15/virginia_sets_record_for_new_registered_voters-ar-393204/
Then why didn’t the idiots do that?
Absolutely, but then, you have the intelligence to understand what I meant.
Any Primary process that is so incredibly over blown and complicated is not a good process. I defeats it’s own purpose.
I assure you, I am not overjoyed. We’ve been given a bad hand.
there was a time years ago when sabato was a relatively reasonable voice on VA politics. now he’s just a towel boy for the liberals.
glad to know your candidate knew the rules and will be on the ballot
Money. It takes lots and lots of money. And neither candidate could come up with enough to buy a spot on the ballot. But I would never expect you to understand a thing like that.
But you do repeat almost word for word, Carl Rove, who was on FOX a few minutes ago saying how good a job Romney did on following the “rules”.
The signatures are valid; the means of disqualifying them are not. This will be corrected in court; too bad the violation is only civil, they deserve jail time.
Maybe they have more character than Mittens or the other one.
Except for the debates, I have not watched FNC in 8 months. And it’s Karl Rove. Learn to spell.
you’re clueless. The two that got on the ballot were grandfathered in from the last election. They didn’t get the signatures either.
Actually, my current candidate was one the ones that did not make it.
I agree that folks can look at it that way. I’m not going to fault them for it. I wish all Republican state leaderships would tighten their enforcement of regulations.
It also galls me that they do not oppose Democrats crossing over to vote in our primaries in some states.
We really do need to get our house in order. How can we get the best Conservative, and allow Democrats to help us select our nominees?
Sorry, but you make it sound like these rules were established yesterday. A critical aspect of leadership is setting priorities and delegating responsibility for those supporters to follow through. Especially at the National level. If one can’t do it at the National they’d end up governing like the o.
Disastor?! Hardly. Sabato wishes. A Romneybot has a premature prognostication.
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