Gingrich, Perry Fail To Qualify For VA Primary Ballot
Whiskey Sam ·
Dec 25, 2011 at 7:42pm
Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry have failed to garner enough signatures to make it onto the ballot for the Virginia primary. Can any of our legal experts tell us if there are loopholes where they could get around this, or does this spell a major problem for both campaigns? For those of us in VA, is there any point in voting in a primary essentially between Romney and Paul? Lastly, does this bring us any closer to the possibility of a brokered convention?
Edit: Evidently Bachmann, Huntsman, and Santorum did not qualify either.
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Jan '11
Re: Gingrich, Perry Fail To Qualify For VA Primary Ballot
Hot Air gives a pretty good run down here. It seems that Gingrich and Perry have no one but themselves to blame for this screw up. And as for whether Va. Republicans should vote, of course you have to. If normal GOP voters don't get to the polls, they will enable a bunch of wingnuts to give Paul a lot of delegates. If you think trying to achieve a brokered convention is a good idea, you are crazy. First there is no guarantee it will happen, and trying to achieve that could have all sorts of unintended consequences. And even if there is a brokered convention, how do you know the wheeling and dealing is going to give you a candidate that you like better?
Jul '10
Re: Gingrich, Perry Fail To Qualify For VA Primary Ballot
I have to vote for the plastic phony to keep the moonbat crazy candidate out? Wow, this is not a highwater moment for the GOP.
Apr '11
Re: Gingrich, Perry Fail To Qualify For VA Primary Ballot
It seems strange to me that all this pining for a brokered convention comes from many of the same people who work themselves into a frenzy over the dreaded "Republican Establishment." Who will run a brokered convention but that same establishment?
This is probably a bit too extreme, but I think Rick Perry's campaign basically ended last night. He had plenty of money and several months to get his business in order. He's just screwed up too many times now.
Jul '10
Re: Gingrich, Perry Fail To Qualify For VA Primary Ballot
I'm not sure I've ever been in a frenzy over the "Republican Establishment". I've been pretty consistent in maintaining our candidate slate stinks, and this fiasco from two of the supposed upper-tier candidates isn't doing anything to dispel that notion.
Apr '11
Re: Gingrich, Perry Fail To Qualify For VA Primary Ballot
I was referring to a general trend in all the brokered convention talk, not to your specific post earlier. I should have made that clear.
Yeah, this is the worst slate we have had in a long while. Newt's campaign has been talking about a write-in campaign this morning- they don't even know enough about the election laws of Newt's home state to know that write-ins for a primary are illegal.
Aug '10
Re: Gingrich, Perry Fail To Qualify For VA Primary Ballot
<tongue in cheek mode = on>
Mitt Romney proves he's the best manager by getting his paperwork done on time.
<tongue in cheek mode = off>
May '10
Re: Gingrich, Perry Fail To Qualify For VA Primary Ballot
Misthiocracy: <tongue in cheek mode = on>
Mitt Romney proves he's the best manager by getting his paperwork done on time.
<tongue in cheek mode = off> · Dec 24 at 11:24am
I'll make the same point but without the tongue in cheek. It speaks well of Mitt that he's running such a professional operation (as he's done his whole life apparently) and that the others are presiding over Chinese firedrills.
Sep '10
Re: Gingrich, Perry Fail To Qualify For VA Primary Ballot
Mitt keeps the papers running on time.
Dec '11
Re: Gingrich, Perry Fail To Qualify For VA Primary Ballot
Welp, that saves me a lot of trouble some morning.
Since I will never in the history of this planet vote for Romney or Paul, I guess I get to stay home that day.
May '10
Re: Gingrich, Perry Fail To Qualify For VA Primary Ballot
Misthiocracy and Pseudo, so having executive skills and running a campaign that is on top of things is now a bad thing, something to mock? Seriously?
You can dislike Mitt for many valid reasons, but with this you are just being snarky and irrational. How about, instead of mocking Romney (and Paul, too, presumably) for successfully getting on the ballot, we discuss what happened in the Gingrich and Perry, and other campaigns, and why they failed?
Jul '10
Re: Gingrich, Perry Fail To Qualify For VA Primary Ballot
concerned citizen: Misthiocracy and Pseudo, so having executive skills and running a campaign that is on top of things is now a bad thing, something to mock? Seriously?
You can dislike Mitt for many valid reasons, but with this you are just being snarky and irrational. How about, instead of mocking Romney (and Paul, too, presumably) for successfully getting on the ballot, we discuss what happened in the Gingrich and Perry, and other campaigns, and why they failed? · Dec 24 at 1:12pm
I would have to agree with your last point. How can Gingrich's and Perry's campaigns credibly continue when they can't even be competent enough to get on a primary ballot? The GOP field is just a mess, and Romney is heading towards the nomination simply by not screwing up. I'm no Romney supporter, but the disorganization of these campaigns has turned this into an embarrassing amateur hour.
Aug '10
Re: Gingrich, Perry Fail To Qualify For VA Primary Ballot
Filing one's papers on time is a minimum requirement of managerial skill. Gingrich and Perry cannot meet the minimum. Romney can meet the minimum.
The point of my satirical jab being two-fold: 1) Gingrich and Perry sure look silly today, and 2) Is the minimum good enough?
Edited on Dec 24, 2011 at 1:41pmAug '10
Re: Gingrich, Perry Fail To Qualify For VA Primary Ballot
Thought: Were there any successful presidential candidates in the past who endured a similar administrative snafu in past elections? Has this sort of thing always been a game-ender in the past?
Feb '11
Re: Gingrich, Perry Fail To Qualify For VA Primary Ballot
Who said it doesn't matter who votes it matters who counts the votes?
Romney is the GOP establishment's candidate and I have a pretty low opinion of that establishment.
So forgive my thought that the GOP establishment has just managed to boot the two most viable non-Romney candidates of the ballot by using Chicago-style tactics.
EDIT: Follow the link at Hotair for the Pink Flamingo blog for more about the potential for mischief here.
Edited on Dec 24, 2011 at 3:06pmMar '11
Re: Gingrich, Perry Fail To Qualify For VA Primary Ballot
There were no "Chicago-style tactics" at play here. Who was threatened? Who was slandered? Perry and Gingrich are merely incompetent. The RPV had nothing to do with it. The primary rules are statutory, and they were enacted by a Democratic General Assembly. (If you believe this is some grand conspiracy, you can always vote for Ron Paul.)
Aug '10
Re: Gingrich, Perry Fail To Qualify For VA Primary Ballot
Apparently, Newt's campaign neglected to purchase the www.newtgingrich.com domain.
For cryin' out loud, man! Are you from the past?!
Sep '10
Re: Gingrich, Perry Fail To Qualify For VA Primary Ballot
concerned citizen: Misthiocracy and Pseudo, so having executive skills and running a campaign that is on top of things is now a bad thing, something to mock? Seriously?
You can dislike Mitt for many valid reasons, but with this you are just being snarky and irrational. How about, instead of mocking Romney (and Paul, too, presumably) for successfully getting on the ballot, we discuss what happened in the Gingrich and Perry, and other campaigns, and why they failed? · Dec 24 at 1:12pm
Actually, I was being witty and irreverent. Perry and Gingrich have clearly jumped the shark, so there's not much for us Canadians (Pseudo and Misthiocracy) to do except whistle and try to get our hands on some late night bubbly. Or Whiskey if Sam plays it again.
Feb '11
Re: Gingrich, Perry Fail To Qualify For VA Primary Ballot
From the Hot Air link it appears that perry at least 1911 signatures tossed and Gingrich had at least 1050. From that I conclude that both campaigns figured they had enough signatures plus a margin of error and both went on to other business.
So we get the next line for the Romney campaign: Perry and Gingrich are merely incompetent.
Good luck with that. Something like 70% of Republicans dislike Romney, and I'll bet a big chunk will come to the same conclusion I did: This is a trick perpetrated by the Romney-hearting establishment. It reminds of the time Obama won an election by getting one of his opponents tossed off the ballot, which is a Chicago-style tactic if there ever was one.
In other words Romney and his friends are already splitting the GOP- and the first votes haven't even been cast.
And- for the record- my actual opinion of Ron Paul is certainly a CoC violation. But I'll vote for him over Romney, if only to show the GOP establishment my puny wrath.
Take that, establishment.
Sep '10
Re: Gingrich, Perry Fail To Qualify For VA Primary Ballot
I also think you're overlooking the dramatic potential if every candidate, including Romney, adopted this surprise way of livening up the race by randomly forgetting to file in certain states. Imagine the commotion if say, oops, Mitt dropped California by mistake, or New York or Florida. I mean cruising to the finish line is pretty dull the old fashioned way but how exciting when like a Snakes 'n Ladder game you can't recall if you forget Idaho or Iowa (they look like the same state when you squint through reading glasses) in the run up to filing deadlines.
Mar '11
Re: Gingrich, Perry Fail To Qualify For VA Primary Ballot
Xennady,
I'm sure Romney and Paul (that other evil favorite of the establishment) had signatures thrown out for being invalid. That doesn't mean this was some nefarious trick by the establishment. In 1999, a Democratic General Assembly established statutes which govern primary elections in the Commonwealth of Virginia, a state in which Newt lives. I'm no big fan of either Romney or Paul, and would prefer Santorum now that Cain's out, but Santorum chose not to participate in Virginia. Oh well, I'm not going to accuse the RPV of corruption because Santorum stayed home.
The rules are fair, and Newt has had 5 and a half months to get signatures. He barely exceeded the minimum, and enough were disqualified to bar him from the primary. Anyone who's been active in politics in Virginia knows that you're on thin ice if you gather fewer than 14,000 signatures, because some many can be thrown out, i.e. illegibility, not registered to vote in the Commonwealth, etc. So yes, Gingrich is incompetent and only half-heartedly in the race. Bet he's got a good book deal in the works, though.