It isn’t that unusual for Republicans to come up short petition-wise, when they have to come up with real numbers. Think about Rick Santorum, Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich in Virginia. When their sig’s were actually examined (because of an unrelated court case, prior to last year they would have simply been accepted), they were off the ballot. Only Ron Paul and Mitt Romney remained. With his near complete sweep of delegates from Virginia, and similar advantage in many districts in other states (since Santorum didn’t have boots on the ground early during the process), Romney’s nomination became inevitable. With regard to where was McCotter, during the Michigan petitioning period, I believe he was running for President. With his attention elsewhere, he must have farmed out petitioning, didn’t hire anybody with actual experience, and got what he paid for.
Maybe McCotter was just bored with the Congressional gig? He seemed to like to play music and puff on a blunt???