Petitions to grant ballot access to the South Carolina Senator have passed the Republican Party of Virginia’s pre-check process, meaning his name will be placed on the presidential primary ballot alongside Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, Chris Christie, John Kasich, and Jeb “Juggernaut” Bush, who have all cleared the RPV process. Most have also completed the filing requirement with the State Board of Elections.
RPV Chairman John Whitbeck has also indicated that the campaigns of Rand Paul, Carly Fiorina, Marco Rubio, and Mike Huckabee have scheduled pre-checks with the party, as has former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore. Candidates have until December 10 to submit the required 5000 signatures, including at least 250 from each of Virginia’s 11 Congressional Districts, to the State Board of Elections. The state party is responsible then for validating the signatures. The party’s pre-check process is meant to speed validation of the signatures and give the candidates a chance to correct any deficiencies before the deadline.
Assuming the additional candidates all submit sufficient numbers of valid signatures, that means voters in the Republican primary will have to choose from among 12 candidates, in contrast to the paltry choice in 2012 between just Mitt Romney and Ron Paul. All of these campaigns deserve credit for deploying the organizational effort necessary to get this done.
Not all of these candidates are created equal, however. Some, like Cruz, Trump, and Bush, have demonstrated a very solid ground game in Virginia. Others, including Fiorina, Rubio, Kasich, and Carson, have good staff organizations and appear to be getting the ball rolling.
Of course, most voters, including those in Virginia, will make up their minds according to what they read in the newspaper and see on television, but in a crowded field a good grassroots ground game can make all the difference.
The Cruz, Trump, and Fiorina campaigns appear to grasp this, and are taking full advantage of the upcoming Republican Party of Virginia Advance, an annual gathering of party activists, donors, and politicos, to be held this year on December 11-13 at the Homestead Resort in Hot Springs. These campaigns will wisely be hosting hospitality suites, and will be on hand all weekend to meet and schmooze with the folks who will form the backbone of successful candidates’ grassroots operations in state.
The Advance is by no means a make-or-break opportunity for any candidate, but it could be a sign of how seriously the campaigns are taking Virginia. We shall see, soon enough.
7 comments
How in the world does Lindsey Graham get all those signatures? And Newt couldn’t get them in 2012? Agree with commenter below – must have paid for them somehow. I’ve never seen a Bush petition collector either. Wonder what percentage of their signatures overlap? You can sign every petition if you want, but this smells fishy. Now we know why some of these guys are in the race – to steal just enough delegates to play fast and loose with the rules later.
Allow me to beat a dead horse. So we will have, in our proportional Virginia primary, 12 people on the ticket which will significantly dilute the 49 Virginia delegates up for grabs on a day (March 1) when 14 states are having a primary…including 155-delegate Texas. We should have done a winner-take-all convention later in the cycle. I’ll shut up on the subject now and forever.
But hey, we’ll be players at the brokered convention in Cleveland…
If I were him I think I would concentrate every ounce of my effort on, if not winning my own state South Carolina (which at this point looks extremely unlikely) at least generating a decent showing (which also looks like a reach), otherwise I would think the local electorate is sending you a message that come your next Senate re-election bid you may not survive the primary. He has NO VP options open unless you believe Rubio is stupid enough to hang this fellow Gang-of-Eight establishment boat anchor around his neck or Jeb makes a miraculous primary recovery. If he doesn’t smarten up he and his buddy McCain will be earning their retirement living on the paid speech rubber chicken circuit regaling establishment Republican audiences with “the way it was” stories of former glory. Talk about out of touch.
I find it hard to believe he got the signatures, how much cash was paid in exchange for a signature?
Some will spare no expense in their race to become chosen as Veep.
Does the RPV validate the candidates or just the signatures?