Gingrich, Perry fail to make Va. ballot
Republican presidential candidates Rick Perry (right), Texas Governor, and Newt Gingrich CBS News/National Journal foreign policy debate at the Benjamin Johnson Arena, Saturday, Nov. 12, 2011 in Spartanburg, S.C. / CBS
WASHINGTON — Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has failed to qualify for Virginia's March 6 Republican primary, a development that complicates his bid to win the GOP presidential nomination.
"After verification, RPV has determined that Newt Gingrich did not submit required 10K signatures and has not qualified for the VA primary," the Republican Party of Virginia announced early Saturday on its Twitter website.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry also fell short of the 10,000 signatures of registered voters required for a candidate's name to be on the primary ballot, but former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Texas Rep. Ron Paul will be on the ballot.
State GOP spokesman Garren Shipley said volunteers spent Friday validating petitions that the four candidates submitted by the Thursday 5 p.m. deadline to the State Board of Elections. Shipley was not available early Saturday to discuss the announcement posted on the website.
Failing to get on the ballot will be a major setback for Gingrich, who has tried to use his recent upsurge in popularity to make up for a late organizing start. Ironically, Gingrich had a slight lead over Romney, with others farther back, in a Quinnipiac poll of Virginia Republicans released earlier in the week.
The load of catching up on organizing work and a lack of advertising money to counter an onslaught of negative ads from his rivals have been major disadvantages.
Gingrich had to leave New Hampshire on Wednesday and race to Virginia, where he needed 10,000 valid voters' signatures to secure a spot on the ballot.
He said Wednesday he had enough ballot signatures, but he wanted to come to Virginia to deliver them personally. Taking no chances, his volunteers asked everyone to sign petitions before entering Gingrich's rally Wednesday night in Arlington, just across the Potomac River from Washington.
Gingrich's early-December rise in several polls gave him renewed hopes of carrying his campaign deep into the primary season. Failure to compete in Virginia, which is among the "Super Tuesday" primaries, would deal a huge blow to any contender who had not locked up the nomination by then.
The state party's Shipley said the party was validating petitions the candidates submitted by the Thursday 5 p.m. deadline to the state elections board. It began validating signatures Friday morning.
The 10,000 registered voters must also include 400 signatures from each of Virginia's 11 congressional districts.
It was unclear if Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum or former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman submitted petitions to the state board.
Meanwhile, Virginia's Democrats said President Barack Obama's re-election campaign gathered enough signatures to get him on the state's primary ballot though he was the only candidate who qualified.
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Rather than complain about the candidates why not concentrate on the real issues that NEED to be discussed.
1. Balanced Budget Amendment - we can't afford what we're doing now.
2. Bring the troops home - stop being the world police force
3. Line item veto for the president - to control the do nothing Congress
4. Eliminate the existing tax code for a 15% flat tax.
5. Let Israel fight it's own battle for once.
6. Secure the southern borders from the drug cartels.
7. Term limits for the House and Congress - just like the Presidency.
Give me a realistic candidate to discuss those issues and the 10K signatures won't be a problem again.
win - 4$
lose - 10$
this is on a 50-50 investment.
what will happen. no one will invest in america.
Well except for Ron Paul.
But I still dont think we need it anymore.
This America attitude(we are the only ones who can do anything and we ARE the worlds police)
Has been the R policy since Reagan. Essentially for them NO money spent on the military and smackin someone down is bad money.
Time to reverse that paradigm!
If it takes a guy like Ron Paul to do it I will vote for him.
Newt Gingrich has demonstrated that he lacks the skills necessary to manage -- or recruit those who can. He is clearly not qualified to hold the position he seeks.
Americans want to work. A job is the only thing between us and losing everything. Republicans have tried everything possible, on every issue, to prevent Pres. Obama from getting Americans back to work in the hope that he can be defeated in 2012. Why did they not do what ever they could to create more jobs? That is what America needed, but Republicans are so out of touch with the average American that we were not considered important by them as they continually pandered to the wealthy, big corporations and big banks. The House of Representatives and the Tea Party have not worked a single day for the betterment of average Americans. Instead they created misinformation, and spin to discredit Obama. Their posturing caused the only downgrade in the USA's credit in history, while creating the so called national debt crisis, which was made worse by a do nothing Congress (House).
We needed our elected officials to work together, and still do. The recession, millions of unemployed are problems that needed all thier attention, constructive input, and compromising skills to correct. Instead they went on a campaign of confrontation, partisanship and greed. Getting America back to work would solve the debt problem, and the budget. But their position was to protect the wealthy and corporations from higher taxes. Putting corporations and the wealthy's wants ahead of the average American is not what was needed, a mistake that should haunt Republicans for decades to come at the polls. The GOP used to be the peoples party, now they have become the right winged wealthy's party. They are more worried about funding to get re-elected than running the country, what they were elected to do.
Their so called job creators have not been creating any jobs, their stance for the wealthy, and against the middle class is nothing more than political self interest. We do not need another do nothing congress. The recession has lasted too long. Millions have lost everything they ever owned, retirement accounts have been decimated, home values have plummeted. All while the GOP did nothing to help us out of the recession. In my opinion, they have won the battle but will lose the war because the GOP needs to convince the average American to vote for them. I plan on giving them the same consideration that they gave to us...nothing!