Virginia stages the nation’s first presidential primary
By Norman Leahy | Saturday, December 24th, 2011 | Politics, VirginiaThe results weren’t official until the early hours of Christmas eve, but Virginia just held the first-in-the-nation GOP presidential primary. The only two candidates who demonstrated that they were serious about contending for the White House were Mitt Romney and Ron Paul.
Those were the only two campaigns to submit the required number of valid signatures to gain access to the state’s primary ballot.
The other campaigns — of Jon Huntsman, Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum, Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich — either failed to submit any petitions at all, or failed to file enough valid signatures.
A hardened cynic might say this result exposes those campaigns for what they are: glorified book tours. And in Newt Gingrich’s case, that’s probably more true than people realize. In his appearance earlier this week in Short Pump, Gingrich took pains to mention his forthcoming book on George Washington’s experience at Yorktown.
Is that too cynical? Not really. The State Board of Elections first notified the presidential campaigns on March 6th of the ballot access requirements. The campaigns have had since July 1st to collect the signatures they needed. They even had the great good fortune of having a statewide election in Virginia this November plus the annual gathering of Republican activists in early December to gather signatures.
Some obviously did. Others? Well, those jacket blurbs aren’t going to write themselves you know…
Getting on Virginia’s ballot was a test of organizational skill and grassroots strength. It was also something much more mundane: it tested whether campaigns could pay attention to a calendar and read instructions. For those complaining that Virginia’s rules are too tough — the ballot access requirements have been largely unchanged since 1999. If memory serves, this is the first time in the three election presidential election cycles since then that the bulk of the field failed to make the ballot.
Virginia, then, has done the nation a service. It has winnowed the Republican field in advance of, and with greater precision than, the place-proud voters of Iowa and New Hampshire. The press may not be aware of this yet, and certainly the partisans of each campaign will be loathe to admit it, but tickets to the Republican presidential nomination were issued at RPV headquarters in Richmond, Virginia last night.
Oh, and good morning Gov. Perry. I wonder if your experience with Virginia’s ballot access laws might cause you to reconsider your veto of a measure to liberalize Texas’ ballot rules?
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About the author
Norm Leahy has written about Virginia and national politics online since 2002, beginning with One Man's Trash (OMT), and continuing through Bacon's Rebellion (both the blog and the e-zine), Sic Semper Tyrannis, NBC12's Decision Virginia, Richmond.com and Tertium Quids. He is the chief blogger at "The Score" and a producer of "The Score" radio show as well as being a Washington Examiner contributor.
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27 Responses to "Virginia stages the nation’s first presidential primary"
wow, I didn’t realize that Perry vetoed a bill that would have prevented circulators from having to read a 93 word statement to each voter.
any idea if RPV will release the actual number of signatures rejected from Perry and Newt?
Agree with Norm 100%. That only two made the cut is not an indication that the rules are too tough, it shows that the candidates are pathetic. Virginia’s primary should be one of the more interesting ones.
2000: Alan Keyes, Gary Bauer, George W. Bush, John McCain, Steve Forbes
2008: Ron Paul, John McCain, Fred Thompson, Mike Huckabee, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney
Have fun with your cynical posts Mr. Leahy, but what you fail to grasp is that many Republican voters will be staying home for the primary and the general. I will make sure I talk enough other people into staying home as well. Iowa is already looking like a circus show, now VA will be right behind them. Happy Obama in 2012.
What Sandy fails to grasp is that the system worked. Perhaps not intentionally, but it managed well in advance of Iowa and New Hampshire, and despite the sundry television debates, to separate the serious from the unserious.
If that disturbs some, then the fault lies not with a long-standing Virgina law that previous campaigns had no problem complying with. It rests with the current Republican field.
Sandy’s attitude is disgusting. There is no excuse for anyone to stay home, regardless of whether their preferred candidate is on the ballot or not. If you don’t like Mitt Romney or Ron Paul, then vote for Obama.
Not participating is an affront to the thousands of men and women who have given their lives to secure the ballot for all of us. There is nothing more important to being an American than voting.
One other point to consider, Brian: the Senate candidates have to meet the same signature threshold to be on the June primary ballot. They can begin gathering signatures in January, and they are due March 12th, a week after the presidential primary.
That will be another test — a local one — of which senatorial campaigns have the organizational skill and grassroots support to run a statewide campaign against Tim Kaine and which are exercises in vanity.
That’s a good point, Norm. It will be interesting to see how many make it.
Well said, Norm – and something I agree with entirely. I also agree with “Sandy” and his or her right to stay home. What I don’t agree with is the disgusting sentiment of trying to convince others to do the same. It’s a twisted person who thinks that subverting the democratic process is a good idea. Campaigning for “none of the above” exerts no pressure on the political class and invites autocracy.
[...] Leahy wrote this morning that the Virginia Republican petition process actually became the first actual presidential primary. “A hardened cynic might say this result [...]
This whole election has become a circus. The media finally decides to vet candidates, and they start to come up with theories seen as nutty as the birther movement. Third party rumors have come up with men like Donald Trump and Rick Perry, and Gary Johnson has already moved that way. Even amongst the Republican candidates, we’re supposed to believe that Mitt Romney and Ron Paul are the best two to run against Obama? A man whose healthcare plan spawned Obamacare or a man who falls into the same blame America first mindset that many Democrats hold? Sorry Brian, but this whole election is an affront to the voters and those who defend our rights. J.R., not exerting pressure on one group we disagree with does not help us when lends support to another such group. And Norm, our nation has received no service from this primary any more than anything else that has happened this cycle.
Needless to say, I’m frustrated. I doubt there has been a presidential incumbent so weak in my lifetime, both in principle and position. This race should be the closest a presidential election can get to a cake walk, and instead, we have a group of candidates that will have to fight just to get a number of votes out of the base, let alone out of other voters, just to show that they are “electable”. Right now, I just cannot see how we can be better off for the next four (or possibly even eight) years given the choices we seem to be left with.
There were other states who had earlier filing deadlines the Virginia and not all candidates qualified on all of them so we are not the first primary.
Why didn’t RPV check Paul’s signatures since their cutoff was supposed to be 15,000 ? Will that hold up in court if challenged if RPV just decided to give Paul a few to get him to 15,000 ? Who made that decision ?
It is not the job of the RPV to pick the winner of the presidential primary. THAT IS WHAT A PRIMARY ELECTION IS FOR. The job of the party appartus is to put a system in place that keeps a messload of kooks off the ballot while placing the serious national candidates on it. If the system excludes the frontrunner and several of the 2nd-tier candidates, than the system is broken and it is the responsibility of the party to FIX IT. The RPV really screwed the pooch on this one.
“This whole election has become a circus.”
Where have you been? Virginia’s Republican politics has been a circle errr… circus for years now. The leadership has never accepted the grassroots as an equal partner in the party. That’s why you had the Frederick rebellion, the creation of Tea Parties, and outright rejection of party principles by the electorate. The leadership hosts Grand Ole Parties for itself at the Hillbilly Hideaway while the party’s peons are snacking on leftovers in the outhouse out back. And now the elite is making excuses to front runner candidates because someone tipped over the potty. The best thing that could happen to Virginia politics is to get rid of the RPV and their incumbent protection team mentality.
[...] has done the rest of America a great service, as my colleague Norm Leahy indicated earlier today – Virginia just held the first real primary of the 2012 presidential season, and now we know [...]
What a MESS!!!!
Tucker, Ron Paul’s signatures were checked. I was checking them from 8 AM till we confirmed he met the qualifications around 2 PM along with about 30 other volunteers. Where did you get the idea his signatures were not checked?
Paul submitted almost 15k. He made it in legitimately.
Any #s on the % of culled signatures between each candidate?
Again, if a candidate made a decision not to place their name on the VA primary ballot because of limited resources, then that’s not a failure… For some of them, they may have predicted a path to nomination that involves a brokered convention where all electors ending up for grabs…or any # of scenarios… For those that did attempt it, yes its a setback but the failure is the party’s as well.
Functionally, how is this result any different then 08? If I remember correctly, only 3 nominees made it to Primary day here- w/Romney having just withdrawn and Huckabee and McCain left. Different route but same result- the RPV lets its primary remain inconsequential
This is easily reversed, although I have done too much working for free for the last several years to take it on by myself, unless the Gingrich campaign or others can raise a litle bit of funding.
As I understand it, the problem is that a campaign was required to get at least 400 valid signatures FROM EACH COUNTY, not just the 10,000 total overall.
Gingrich submitted over 11,000 signatures.
However, as I heard it explained, the RPV said they would not bother checking the ballot petitions for any candidate who submitted over 15,000 signatures over the 10,000 total required.
If that is true, then nobody has checked if Mitt Romney’s ballot petitions are valid. They were just accepted automatically as valid. Romney submitted 16,000.
If we focus on the smaller Counties, I would bet you that Romney also did not qualify for the ballot under these rules.
I would bet that if we examine the smaller counties, NONE of the candidates submitted 400 *VALID* petition signatures for some of the COunties.
Remember that to be valid, not only must the signer be a registered voter AND the signature and information be legible, but the petition gatherer must be a registered voter in that County, and must have WATCHED the signer sign the petition.
If Romney’s petitions are challenged by poring through the individual signatures from the smaller Counties, it will probably be found — forced by a Court if necessary — that NO ONE qualified for the primary ballot.
That would require a different method be selected for choosing the nominee.
It was 500 signatures in each Congressional district, or 5500 signatures out of the 10,000 minimum. That’s not that hard. There are 134 counties and incorporated cities. If a candidate needed to get 400 signatures in each locality, the minimum number of signatures would have to be 53,600. The 15,000 signature threshold is merely a labor-saving device, as it safely presumes that the candidate has enough extra signatures to balance out any that would be discarded during verification.
I was wrong. Romney’s and Paul’s signatures were verified by the RPV. Let’s see folks spin the “Paul is and establishment candidate” line.
With some hard work and luck I hope you are correct Dave. Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas, James.
[...] Drift‘s Norm Leahy leads the criticism in Virginia stages the nation’s first presidential primary. Take note of the date of this first presidential primary. On November 6, 2012, we will elect our [...]
I agree with Darrell (#14)! The RPV thumbs its nose at the Tea Party at its peril.
[...] Norm Leahy (Bearing Drift) [...]
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