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Gingrich makes Virginia ballot; others miss out
1 of 8. Protesters disrupt a news conference by U.S. Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich after he got the endorsement of Iowa Speaker of the House Kraig Paulsen and New Hampshire Speaker of the House Bill O'Brien at the Iowa State Capitol in Des Moines, Iowa, December 21, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Jeff Haynes
WASHINGTON |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich's last-minute scramble to make the ballot in the Virginia primary succeeded, but other candidates were left out in the cold.
Gingrich, a frontrunner for the Republican nomination, was forced to detour from the campaign trail on Wednesday and Thursday to secure the necessary 10,000 signatures to appear on the ballot in the key swing state.
According to the Virginia state board of elections, Gingrich made the ballot with 11,050 signatures, which is short of the 12,000 to 13,000 he said he had at an event in Arlington, Va. on Wednesday night.
Republican candidates Jon Huntsman, a former governor of Utah, U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania failed to make the ballot.
Mitt Romney, another frontrunner, led the way in Virginia, delivering more than 16,000 signatures. U.S. Representative Ron Paul of Texas, who is a favorite of the conservative Tea Party movement, handed in 14,361, and Texas Governor Rick Perry delivered 11,911.
Gingrich supporters and critics have voiced concern about whether the former U.S. House of Representatives speaker has the organization necessary to take on Romney for the Republican nomination and President Barack Obama in the 2012 election.
(Reporting By Sam Youngman; Editing by Paul Simao)
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While Paul is (justifiably so) the one most frequently noted in the Republican field as not pandering to special interest groups, and being possessive of an ample amount of good ol’ “common sense”, I feel that Huntsman has shown himself to be an even better candidate in terms of being one who could actually yield the potential to provide real solutions for our country (as opposed to the war-mongering, “moral issues” touting fools who’ve gotten significantly more press coverage). I wish that more people would take just a little bit of time to educate themselves about Huntsman; from what I’ve learned of him, he seems to possess some very bright ideas and ways of thinking.
Unfortunately, those are traits which those who’ve been doing poll-voting thus far, who’ve pushed far too many truly ignorant candidates to the foreground in this election season’s Republican Party spectacle, appear to hold in disfavor.
Huntsman not making this ballot is quite the sad commentary on how foolish the process we have in place in our country for choosing elected officials, a process which all too often ignores issues of true importance while instead focusing upon ‘hot button’ issues, has become.
But 3,000 of them were signed by the same slack-jawed pervert at Focus on the Family. One dollar per signature only gets you the low-end stuff. Invalidated after an arrest warrant was served for kiddie-porn on the signatory’s residence.
Sorry Newt. You lost out. Better luck next time, champ. Family Values all the way!
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