Can Breitbart's Site Get Their Story Straight On Virginia?
There are two stories currently appearing on Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government talking about the Virginia GOP Primary fiasco. One of the stories, by Charles C. Johnson, gives this explanation to the cause of the problem that lead to the rule change: Worse yet, Virginia’s House of Delegates complicated matters further when voters may not know […]
There are two stories currently appearing on Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government talking about the Virginia GOP Primary fiasco. One of the stories, by Charles C. Johnson, gives this explanation to the cause of the problem that lead to the rule change:
Worse yet, Virginia’s House of Delegates complicated matters further when voters may not know which congressional district they live in thanks to an ongoing state-wide fight over redistricting. Virginia Republicans submitted a map in April 2011, but Virginia Democrats seemed insistent on pushing the matter to January 2012 and then to federal court if they don’t enough black–and therefore Democratic–congressional districts. They would sue the state under the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and toss the matter of redistricting over to the federal courts.
So it’s those damn Democrats fault? Well not if you read what Publius writes:
The only reason the Virginia Republican Party checked the signatures for validity for the current primary is that in October 2011, an independent candidate for the legislature, Michael Osborne, sued the Virginia Republican Party because it did not check petitions for its own members, when they submitted primary petitions. Osborne had no trouble getting the needed 125 valid signatures for his own independent candidacy, but he charged that his Republican opponent’s primary petition had never been checked, and that if it had been, that opponent would not have qualified. The lawsuit, Osborne v Boyles, cl 11-520-00, was filed in Bristol County Circuit Court. It was filed too late to be heard before the election, but is still pending. The effect of the lawsuit was to persuade the Republican Party to start checking petitions. If the Republican Party had not changed that policy, Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry would be on the 2012 ballot.
So it’s the fault of some independent candidate filing a lawsuit? That sounds more reasonable and is the only story to which I could find any verification on.
Maybe Breitbart could contact his writers and try to get them all on the same page. Of course if that happened then you wouldn’t get the big “it was the left’s fault” boogeyman conspiracy the right has been trying to push.