Gingrich: Campaign Worker's Signature Fraud Cost Slot on Virginia Ballot

CNN ^ | December 28th, 2011 | Shawna Shepherd

[BarnacleCenturion]

Algona, Iowa (CNN) - Newt Gingrich cited fraud Wednesday as the reason he didn't get on the Virginia primary ballot.

Last week his campaign acknowledged they used paid volunteers to scramble to get the required 10,000 signatures but fell short after the former House speaker and Virginia resident boasted his campaign was submitting as many as 12,000-14,000 signatures.

On a campaign stop at an Algona chocolate store, the former House speaker said the "mistake" occurred because one of their workers committed fraud.

[NoPrisoners]

You’ve got to give him props for coming clean rather than obscure the facts with finger pointing outside his own circle.

This needs mentioning again!

[JediJones]

[darrellmaurina]

14 posted on Wednesday, December 28, 2011 5:48:23 PM by Burkean: “You’ve got to give him props for coming clean rather than obscure the facts with finger pointing outside his own circle.”

I'll give that to Gingrich. He owned up to the screwup and deserves credit for that. This is much better than his earlier statements blaming the Virginia rules.

Screwups happen in campaigns. That's a given. Taken by itself this might not be so bad, but when somebody with Gingrich's level of political experience makes a mistake like this **IN THE STATE WHERE HE LIVES** the very least that can be said is it causes people to look more closely at his history of flying by the seat of his pants in prior political roles.

My read of Gingrich is he has the personality of an absent minded professor with great ideas. That's not a total disqualification for the presidency, but if you're going to be a “big picture guy” who chooses to focus on the forest rather than the trees, you need to be sure somebody else on your team **IS** focusing on the trees. Looks like that didn't happen in the petition drive, and that's a really bad indicator of potentially worse problems.

[RKBA Democrat]

So he’s admitting that he hired a moron to do the work for him, and that he doesn’t have a sufficient volunteer base or paid organization to do it correctly. Gee, that sure inspires faith.

Does Newt have a fetish for shooting himself in the foot? He’s a very smart guy, but he really should learn to shut his mouth from time to time.

[Yashcheritsiy]

So he’s admitting that he hired a moron to do the work for him, and that he doesn’t have a sufficient volunteer base or paid organization to do it correctly. Gee, that sure inspires faith.

Are you kidding me?

Let's face it - anybody who has ever owned a business for any length of time and employing any number of employees over a maniple has at some point or another hired a moron, as I'm sure your employer can attest. Sometimes they slip through.

And let's face it, it could very well be that the Gingrich campaign had this guy on specifically because the guy was pretending to be supportive, but was lying with the intention of causing just this type of trouble. Are Gingrich and his senior staff supposed to be mind readers?

[Gene Eric]

If the other candidates weren’t such assholes, they’d pull out of the VA race.

[Baynative]

There is no fraud for democrats. What do they know that we don’t?

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks BarnacleCenturion.

[reaganaut]

Romney.

[DB]

The rules were changed in late November. There’s much more to this story.

[harpu]

You may have Newt’s mind residing inside the beltway but his physical person lives in McLean, VA, since 1999.

[Hoodat]

McLean is inside the Beltway.

[WFTR]

Crock of pure crap. I have never heard a more stupid remark.

Then you need to read your own posts. What I said stands. You are an idiot.