Earlier Sunday, Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, who heads Romney’s Virginia campaign, had said emergency legislation to get additional candidates on the ballot for this year’s primary would be unfair to the two candidates who played by the rules.
In another statement Sunday night, Bolling said he appreciates the turnabout by Cuccinelli, his rival for the 2013 GOP gubernatorial nomination.
“Needless to say, I am pleased that Attorney General Cuccinelli has abandoned his call for legislative changes to Virginia’s ballot access requirements in advance of the Republican presidential primary in March,” Bolling said.
Translantion: The rules will never change.
The other GOP candidates yesterday advised the SBE and RPV that they plan to join in Perry’s suit, so that’s the remaining possibility of getting names on the ballots. I am not a constitutional lawyer, and, in fact, by the good Grace of God, am not a lawyer at all, so other than recognizing that the complaint was well crafted, haven’t had my in-house counsel see if it’s on point with the cases cited. Cuccinelli will have to file the answer for SBE, and another attorney for Pat Mullins (who, so far as I recall wasn’t mentioned after the case caption).
It does read like a Complaint that was ‘in the can’ and ready to go if Perry were disqualified, not one drafted after the fact. VA has been under the very watchful eye of DOJ’s Civil Rights Division for eons now, so it’s hard to imagine they let a discriminatory ballot access law go through (but we can ask SC about how ‘discriminatory’ has changed meaning in recent times)
Bolling sure didn’t hold back punches vs. Cuccinelli. This is NOTHING compared to the bloodbath when they go up against each other for the GOP nomination for Governor. Bolling DID step aside so McDonnell could run for Gov in ‘09, so he probably thinks he’s ‘next in line,’ having given up ‘his turn’ in Republican tradition.
Everyone should fasten their seat belts.