Every candidate for statewide office has to get 10,000 signatures. All the governor, lt, governor, and at. General candidates manage to do it. Every 4 years many presidential hopefuls do it (in 2008 Duncan Hunter failed).
It’s hard, and we occasionally debate having other ways because it doesn’t really prove anything (republicans tend to sign all the petitions because that way others will sign your petitions, and one of the odd things this year was that the campaigns seemed to eschew any cooperation).
But I was shocked that Perry didn’t get 15,000 so he didn’t have to worry. He was here in September, we had an election in November, and I never saw a Perry petition, and the campaign never answered e-mails about it. Perry had a former AG working for his campaign, and Kilgore knew exactly what had to be done, and failed to do it.
I’m not as surprised at Gingrich, although he does LIVE here.
Mickey Mouse requirement, maybe. But certainly not overly difficult.