Virginia finally decided the primary ballot. Everyone except Mitt Romney and Ron Paul have failed to meet the requirements to appear. That includes the current Virginia front runner, Newt Gingrich.
But Newt isn’t going down without a fight. Instead he has said he has a plan:
“Only a failed system excludes four out of the six major candidates seeking access to the ballot. Voters deserve the right to vote for any top contender, especially leading candidates. We will work with the Republican Party of Virginia to pursue an aggressive write-in campaign to make sure that all the voters of Virginia are able to vote for the candidate of their choice.”
(emphasis added)
Now there’s a big problem there and one that a resident of Virginia, like Newt Gingrich, should recognize. Virginia does not allow write-in ballots!
That’s not the only mistake Newt made in all of this. It turns out that Newt actually left Iowa earlier this week to try and get the final signatures needed
With the Iowa caucuses less than two weeks away and New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries right behind them, Newt Gingrich is bound for—Virginia.
Gingrich will campaign in the state Wednesday and Thursday, even though its GOP presidential primary isn’t until March. And therein lies the problem.
Newt only needed 10,000 signatures in Virginia, a state with almost 8 million people and that leans Red. This wasn’t an overnight feat either. The signature process started on July 1st. So what does this say about the Gingrich organization? What’s it say about most of the GOP field, when only two of their candidates have the organizational skills to achieve this?
This is a rather amazing development. Maybe Newt and the other candidates will wage a battle in the courts over this, or maybe they will just give up. We’ll find out next week, but one thing is for sure – this does not look good for a Republican field already in disarray!