I would not call it his failure. This is a set up because they knew he might run well in those districts.
I’m open to being persuaded but I do not see how this was “a set up.”
I would not call it his failure.
Why wouldn’t it be a failure, lack of follow through or incompentency? He signed the form, sent it in without sufficient names on it for some districts. Now it maybe he was aware of that and just didn’t want to spend the time/effort to find a another person or two whose name he could submit.