GULP! You CAN run for VP and something else in Virginia

When I first saw this post from Riley (Virginia Virtucon), I have to admit I was skeptical.  Conventional wisdom in the Commonwealth has held that a person can’t run for Vice President and Senate (or House of Representatives) at the same time.  Riley wasn’t so sure:

. . . I’ve been checking Virginia election law and do not see where a candidate is prohibited from running for two federal offices during the same election.  In fact, the closest that the Virginia Constitution even gets to this issue is:

nothing in this Constitution shall limit the power of the General Assembly to prevent conflict of interests, dual officeholding, or other incompatible activities by elective or appointive officials of the Commonwealth or of any political subdivision.

It appears that the General Assembly has not voted to prevent someone from holding dual offices (although that would not preempt federal law on the subject) nor has it addressed the related issue of running for two seats in the same election.

Like I said, I was skeptical.  So I started digging around the Virginia Code.  Unlike Riley, I actually found something – and it was quite the jaw dropper (Title 24.2, Part 504, emphasis added):

Only a person fulfilling all the requirements of a candidate shall have his name printed on the ballot for the election. No person shall have his name printed on the ballot for more than one office at any one election. However, a candidate for federal or statewide office, or a candidate for an office being filled in a special election, may have his name printed on the ballot for two offices at an election.

In other words, Virginia law does say something about running for Vice President and something else at the same time: as I read the law, it explicitly permits it.  Everything we thought we knew about Vice Presidential nominees and Virginia was wrong.  Fasten your seat belts, folks; we have quite a ride ahead of us.