I can understand the frustration of numerous voters and bloggers to the state of the Virginia Republican Primary ballot. I just wish the frustrations were aimed in the right direction – at the incredibly incompetent or uninterested candidates.
Does 10,000 signatures sound like a lot? Sure it does, until one takes a look at the State Board of Elections’ rules – in particular, the start date for candidates to get signatures: July 1, 2011.
In other words, candidates had nearly six months to get this done. Even the 15,000 number that RPV used for “automatic” certification translates to less than 100 signatures a day statewide. With just one volunteer in each Congressional District, the candidates needed less than eight signatures per day per circulator to ensure they qualified for the ballot (Perry declared on August 13, so in his case, he needed just under 10.5 per day).
Am I really supposed to believe that candidates for president can’t find 11 volunteers throughout the state of Virginia, or that those volunteers couldn’t do eight signatures (or ten and a half in Perry’s case) a day? During my almost-candidacy for school board, I could get ten in less than an hour.
Fact is, no candidate not named Romney or Paul had the dedication or forethought to make sure they made it on the ballot. That’s on them, not the State Board or the RPV.
Here’s the reality: there are only two serious candidates for president left. The rest have been proven to be pretenders, pure and simple.
I think the two things that are at issue is the requirement that each Congressional district must have a minimum number of signatures
AND
that the folks who collect signatures must be registered voters in Va.
I’m not agreeing or disagreeing with the issue..just trying to understand why it is the way it is and why it’s a Virginia law rather than a political party issue about rules.
Of course Va is somewhat repressive anyhow as it does not permit citizen-initiated referenda including recall votes for elected.
I initially assumed that the ballot access must have been unduly onerous (hey, I’m here in New York, where it really is that way). But I am now convinced that any candidate who’s not on the VA primary ballot really only has themselves to blame.
Then again, I’m inclined to give the candidates running on more of a shoestring a pass. Rick Santorum, to cite just one example, likely figured he didn’t want to spend several thousand, probably out of his own pocket, to get the VA signatures when, if he doesn’t win, place, or show in Iowa, he’s probably out anyway.
On the other hand, a Rick Perry, whose campaign coffers were well stocked last summer and fall, has no excuse. Someone really needs to write a book about the Perry campaign…it is like a HBS case study on how to squander a promising Presidential candidacy. It seems clear that the GOP nomination was Perry’s for the taking in the summer of 2011; there have to be a whole lots of “Oops” events to find oneself facing likely second-division finishes in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, inevitably followed by a concession and a rapid retreat to Austin.
With all that preamble, a question:
Are the delegates that the Virginia GOP shall send to Tampa irrevocably tied to the results of the primary election?
Can the Virginia GOP instead decide to choose delegates at a state convention or some other kind of party conclave or caucus, with the primary results being merely advisory?
This is really an election law question. To wit, can a private organization, the Virginia Republican Party, change its own rules midstream?
But it is also a political question. Does the VA GOP want to?
With an advisory primary election with only Paul and Mitt on the ballot, campaigns without a ballot line could urge their voters to submit a blank ballot to signal dissatisfaction, that could then be taken into account by the power brokers who would assign delegates.
Actually, another election law question: Can the VA GOP decide to send unpledged delegates to the national convention? That might be another workaround for the party to extricate itself from this situation. (Again, one that’s not the VA GOP’s fault, but what is their problem.)
Now that I’m done thinking out loud, a shorter, crisper version of the question:
The primary election, with only Rep. Paul and fmr Gov. Romney on the ballot, is going to happen.
After that, what options remain for the Virginia Republican party, regarding the final selection of delegates to the national convention in Tampa?
In New York, Republican presidential candidates who are discussed in the national news media, or who qualify for primary season matching funds, are put on the presidential primary ballot automatically. No petition needed.
I must not be up to date on that. Wasn’t there some big hullabaloo in 2000 because McCain was having some problems getting on the New York primary ballot, and it was blamed on the big bad Bushies? (I’m going off distant memory here, so I might well have it all wrong.)
I recall some shenanigans in Democratic primaries in the 1980s and 90s as well, although I can’t recall specifics.
May I ask where you got that information? Granted, my sources are lost in the mists of time, so I’ll admit to that failing; I’m not challenging your veracity as much as trying to learn where to go for this information.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/12/31/virginia-attorney-general-intervenes-in-gop-primary-ballot-dispute/
RWL-VP-endorsee Ken Cuccinelli is taking steps to open the VA ballot to all GOP contenders.
How does this affect the RWL’s relatively tepid endorsement of former Governor Mitt Romney and the full-throated endorsement of General Cuccinelli?
My recollection was that the RWL list had been narrowed to Romney and former Senator Rick Santorum anyway, and absent big performances by Santorum in Iowa on Tuesday and South Carolina in a few weeks, he’s not likely to be an active candidate by the time the Virginia primary is held.
Regardless, I think it’s a wise move to avoid any appearance of impropriety. Romney doesn’t need an empty ballot to win Virginia, and if I’m wrong and he does, that’s good information for the GOP to have.
I, for one, think the rules were fairly clear, and that this is unnecessary, but opinion may vary. I expect Romney would win even with Gingrich and Perry on the ballot.
Odds are Cuccinelli prefers neither Romney nor Paul; that’s probably motivating him to try this – and given that McDonnell was singalling a preference for Perry for a good while now, it actually could come to pass.
It’s hard to imagine this mattering much. In order for it to matter, one of two things would have to happen:
1. A candidate (likely Romney) would need to be winning the nomination on the first ballot by 46 delegates or less (46 being the number of VA delegates bound on the first ballot)
2. A candidate would need to be 46 or less delegates from a first ballot majority in the nomination tally.
Given the dynamics of these races, with people dropping out and pledging their delegates to the winner by acclamation, and given that all the primary ballots in the tail end of the primary season are winner-take-all, it’s just not very likely that it would be that close.