Why is Virginia so difficult for the candidates?
I don’t know. I was easily able to collect 15 signatures for each candidate I tried in 2008. If 100 people did that, we’d cover a district.
No candidate took me up on the offer this time, or told me how to sign their petitions. It’s like they didn’t care.
On the other hand, I read a blog that says professionals turn down petition contracts in Virginia because it’s too hard. I don’t see why.
If I find out the missing signatures were from my district, I’ll be pissed. I could have taken petitions for each of these candidates and sat at the election polling place for an hour and collected 100 signatures for each. In a day we’d ahve collected 400. But the only candidate collecting at the polls was Herman Cain.
It’s NOT that difficult!!! The rules are clear.
Get 10k signatures (with at least 400 per congressional district). Presto! End of story.
It comes down to...
1. Organization
2. Boots on the ground
3. Organization
4. Money
If you’re doing this by the “seat of your pants”, you’re gonna have a few flubs.
Romney has been preparing for this campaign for nearly six years. His staff probably knows the state and county GOP leaders by first name. It’s easy to assume that Romney’s staff has a working relationship with A LOT of precinct captains in each congressional district. With that infrastructure in place, getting the signatures was no problem. He might not be popular with the conservative base, but his network found enough moderate voters to sign up.
This isn’t rocket scientist folks!!! Running a campaign is more than just flashy ads or drawing big crowds. It’s fundamentals (blocking and tackling) and building an infrastructure.
According to rumors, some of the candidates made last second appeals to Virginia Organize-for-Palin groups. If they only approached these groups earlier after Palin said “no” in October and they might of had a different outcome.