Posted on 12/27/2011 3:48:28 PM PST by TBBT
Texas Gov. Rick Perry has filed suit in federal court against the Virginia Republican Party and the Virginia Board of Elections in order to gain a spot on the Commonwealth's primary ballot. Perry was excluded after the party found he had not submitted enough valid signatures by the deadline last Thursday. His campaign submitted 6,000 of the required 10,000, according to the suit. The lawsuit alleges that Perry's 1st and 14th Amendment rights were violated by the requirement that those circulating the petitions also be eligible or registered voters of Virginia. Failure to get on the ballot is a major embarrassment for the struggling Perry campaign — but he is not alone. Another one-time GOP frontrunner, Newt Gingrich, also failed to qualify. "Gov. Perry greatly respects the citizens and history of the Commonwealth of Virginia and believes Virginia Republicans should have greater access to vote for one of the several candidates for President of the United States," Perry communications director Ray Sullivan said in a statement. "Virginia ballot access rules are among the most onerous and are particularly problematic in a multi-candidate election. We believe that the Virginia provisions unconstitutionally restrict the rights of candidates and voters by severely restricting access to the ballot, and we hope to have those provisions overturned or modified to provide greater ballot access to Virginia voters and the candidates seeking to earn their support."
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You beat me to it! Just heard this on Fox news. GREAT NEWS!!
PING
Art Laffer is apparentally endorsing Gingrich tomorrow per Fox News.
Between Perry and Gingrich taking action...maybe they will be included on the polls. Wouldn’t that make Sabato, Rove and the Romney campaign madder than a bull grazing on astro turf
Yes. I get tired of Fox saying Newt is not organized and he and Perry should have been able to do this. This gets repeated every hour on the hour. Fox is turning into one big joke on its reporting about this. Ron Paul and Romney were grandfathered in from ‘08. Why do we know that and they don’t?
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Congrats to Perry for standing up and fighting!
Just heard this on television. Go Rick!
GOOD!!! Stand and FIGHT! :)
FOX has their own agenda this election. Have tuned it out.
The reality of having so many candidates vying for signatures was overlooked when they set the rules. Little did they know that they would disenfranchise voters when the primary vote came up. For instance, what if Governor Perry were the top candidate come March 6th, on Virginia's primary date? Virginia would not be able to vote for the top candidate on the national ticket. And, delegates to the Republican National Convention will be based upon the winner of the March 6th Primary.
Fox News has gone off the rails in fear of Newt. Krauthammer has been nothing short of shameful in his very personal attacks against Newt. Kraut obviously does not like the notion that conservatives will find someone else more intelligent than he inside the beltway. He is just about totally dead to me now after years of respecting him.
IT is awful. I predict they will not have the normal election year ratings bump.
He would do much better to try to knock Romney off the ballot by challenging his signatures. Then Ron Paul would win, but since he would get many delegates in any other state, it would not cause any harm.
I say GREAT. I don’t blame him at all.
Courts are meant to arbitrate disputes that cannot be resolved - and to uphold rights when they are violated.
So, Perry's rights were violated because he couldn't find people that were qualified and registered to vote in Virginia......so he intended to use minors, felons, illegals, and bussed in community organizers?
So, in a state of approximately 5 million registered voters he couldn't get 10,000 signatures or... 0.2% of the registered vote.
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