Virginia Right’s Tom White has some good posts on Virginia’s presidential election debacle.
Gingrich Out in Virginia Primary – Only Romney and Paul on Va GOP Primary Ballot reports on the disaster.
Newt Gingrich was eliminated from the possibility of having his name on the Virginia Republican Presidential Primary ballot for 2012.
Virginia requires at least 10,000 signatures which must include 400 from each Congressional District.
Mitt Romney and Ron Paul remain as the only candidates whose name will appear on the ballot in the Republican Presidential Primary.
This news was released a few hours ago as State GOP workers counted well into the wee hours. (continued here)
Virginia May Have Improperly Excluded Signatures From Perry, Gingrich. a Recount May Be Needed! suggests possible legal challenges.
I’m no attorney but I do know how to find and read the laws of Virginia.
Various reports have stated that the signatures turned in by Newt Gingrich included at least 2,000 that were invalidated because there was no address given with the signature.
If this were a Virginia Statewide office, that would be correct. But this is a Presidential Primary. And while the rules are similar, they are actually addressed in two separate sections of the Virginia Code. (continued here)
The comments also focus on the legal issues. Some took issue with Tom White’s observation that Newt Gingrich (and perhaps Rick Perry as well) might have a case. In fact, they chose to blame the victims. Here is an example.
J.R. Hoeft · 16 hours ago
Great, so let’s gird our loins and lawyer up. That’ll make us all think more positively of Gingrich and Perry and their inept campaigns.
Such comments led me to offer one of my own.
Excuse me. I understand the legal niceties cannot be avoided. I understand we all have our favorite candidates, but would you all do me a favor? Just answer a straightforward question. This is Christmas Day in 2011. We are talking about a presidential election in November 2012. When it is so difficult to get a presidential campaign rolling, why are we requiring that the petitions be completed now? All this kind of crap does is make it almost impossible except for the richest candidates to run. I don’t care how organized you are. In Prince William County we just filled our seats in the General Assembly, the Sheriff’s office, the Commonwealth Attorney, the Board of County Supervisors, the School Board, and the Soil and Water Board. And now we are already being pestered by presidential candidates. My wife is so sick of telephone solicitations from politicians it is not funny. When voters refuse to pay any attention to another political race this soon, the news media is just not that interested.
I follow politics more carefully than most. Until after our elections in November 2011, I had no real interest in the 2012 elections. So the first I heard of that the petitions would be due before Christmas was when the press started saying Gingrich would not have time to get his petitions done. And I just shook my head. We are going to be stuck with a choice between RINO and a Libertarian? Oh SH–! Is it really any surprise the Liberal News media carried that story?
By requiring the primary and the petitions so early, we have unnecessarily eliminated perfectly good candidates (Compared to Obama, it is silly to say otherwise.). If one of us wants to call Gingrich’s and Perry’s campaigns inept, it’s our right, but we have no chance of getting on the ballot. Anyone who can even come close deserve some respect. What the fact only Romney and Paul qualified indicates is that we have set the bar absurdly high.
What we need to consider here is how the government of The Commonwealth of Virginia, led by incumbent politicians, has abused its authority. Instead of members of Republican Party deciding how they will choose their candidates, incumbent politicians have taken over the process. Thus, it now appears that Republicans in Virginia will have no real choice.
Consider how our electoral system has evolved. At first incumbent politicians rigged the system to exclude almost any possibility a third party candidate might win. Now the incumbents have succeeded in severely limiting who can qualify to run in a primary election. If this progression continues, we will eventually have one party elections with one candidate.
What this fiasco should help point out are the constitutional issues. When the incumbents control how political parties pick their candidates, the majority of voters lose any opportunity to select the candidate they might otherwise elect. That person may never even appear on the ballot.
What are the constitutional issues? In this post, REVIVING AN OLD POST=> ON POLITICAL PARTIES: WHY WE NEED CONVENTIONS, I review the constitutional issues in more detail.
Here are a couple of news articles on the subject.
- Gingrich faces long odds to compete in Virginia presidential primary from the Washington Post
- VA GOP Changed Ballot Access Rules Last Month from Big Government
- Virginia Republican Presidential Primary from Real Clear Politics provides polling data. Can you guess which candidate was winning?
Other Views
Bearing Drift‘s Norm Leahy leads the criticism in Virginia stages the nation’s first presidential primary. Take note of the date of this first presidential primary. On November 6, 2012, we will elect our next president. Yet what Leahy calls the first presidential primary, December 22, 2011. That is the date the petitions were due to qualify for the Virginia’s March 6h presidential primary (see here). Yet because of the 2012 Republican Presidential Debates, candidates have been soaring and fizzling in the polls, and one has only recently been persuaded to enter the fray. Yet in Virginia the Republican nomination is for all practical purposes now a settled matter.
Therefore, Virginia Virtucon asks Is this any way to choose a Presidential Candidate?
SWAC Girl notes in Game changer for Newt? Name will not appear on Virginia ballot what the rest of us should be able to readily observe.
Sounding all too much like those Republicans happy with only Romney and Paul on the Virginia ballot, Democrat blogs offered their “bipartisan” opinions. DemRulz explains Getting on the Primary Ballot in Virginia. The Richmonder writes In defense of Virginia’s ballot petitions.
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Makes me sick to see Virginia voters have their choices hijacked. Is the “write in” is still an option?
Nope! The big boys don’t want to take any chances.
Since I forget which article mentioned the prohibition against write-ins, here are a couple more references.
http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/10401-gop-candidates-sue-va-board-of-elections-over-ballot-issues
http://www.baconsrebellion.com/2012/01/deconstructing-virginias-primary-ballot-fiasco.html