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By Dena Potter
RICHMOND
Texas Gov. Rick Perry filed an emergency order Wednesday in federal court requiring Virginia's Board of Elections to place his name on the ballot for the state Republican presidential primary.
Last week, Perry failed to meet Virginia's requirements that each candidate receive 10,000 signatures of registered voters, with 400 from each of its 11 congressional districts.
On Tuesday, he filed a lawsuit against the State Board of Elections and Republican Party of Virginia Chairman Pat Mullins.
On Wednesday, Perry filed an emergency motion in U.S. District Court in Richmond asking for an injunction ordering the State Board of Elections to include his name on the ballot for the March 6 primary. He asked the judge to make a decision soon because the deadline to print ballots is in the next few weeks.
Newt Gingrich as well as Perry came short of the signatures required to be certified as candidates. Only former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas met the requirement. Other candidates did not submit signatures.
Perry contends that Virginia's requirements are unconstitutional because they violate his freedoms of speech and association. He also challenges the part of Virginia's law that says signatures must be gathered by a state resident, saying the requirements "restrict the number of message carriers" and even prevent him from soliciting signatures for his own campaign.
Perry said the "overly burdensome and unconstitutional requirements" prevented him from collecting enough signatures to be certified as a candidate. He submitted 6,000 signatures on the Dec. 22 deadline.
"The Commonwealth will not be harmed by the issuance of an injunction against the enforcement of the state-residency requirement," the motion reads. "Indeed, the only harm that Commonwealth will suffer is in being restrained from maintaining a law that is likely to be found unconstitutional. Plaintiffs, on the other hand, are likely to suffer irreparable injury."
Perry also asked that a judge prevent the board from drawing names to determine placement on the ballot, but that occurred during a meeting earlier Wednesday. Paul's name will appear above Romney's on the ballot.
The board referred all questions to the Attorney General's Office, which did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
Mullins, the state GOP chairman, said he was simply doing his job.
"As chairman, my responsibility is to certify candidates who meet the ballot access requirements set forth in Virginia statutes," he said in a statement Wednesday. "I complied with Virginia law by certifying the candidates who met the statutory requirements by 5 p.m. yesterday."
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Geeezzzzz....I hope he doesn't prevail
in the court.
As of now, we can expect the campaigns of just two candidates clobbering the air waves flinging mud at each other, sending junk mail, erecting signs on the road sides, robo-calling our homes...
the people of texas apologize to the people of virginia
But the longer Perry is on the campaign trail, the less time he will have to screw up things in TX, selling government regulatory posts to his highest campaign donors, selling our highway system to foreign companies, and selling out the citizens when there might be a slight drop in the profits to the companies that funded his campaign.
heheheh, substatute O for perry and the US for tx
and that is what O is doing. Should we rally around O, or Perry, or not support either of them?
Guess a lib will support O and his cronny mindset but will demonize a -R for doing the exact same thing.
And libs will say the same thing about what I just said. In other words, politicans or all sides support and engage in cronnyism. Its not just one side or the other.
This wont get fixed until both sides hold their reps accountable to this practice. Alas, both sides SUPPORT this action and incourage THEIR guy to engage in this practice while slaming the other side for doing the same thing.
Speaking of slamming,
One of the most restrictive voting laws in the nation was signed by Texas Governor Rick Perry. The bill, which Perry fast-tracked by designating it as “emergency” legislation, enforces a photo ID requirement that can be met by a concealed handgun permit but not by a student ID from a state university. And under the law only a Texas citizen who has passed a mandatory training program can register voters.
That would be the same Perry who is now challenging Virginia’s rules.
You might want to check your ox for signs of goring!
Perry?
Perry, fortunately, has zilch opportunity to ever become president. He is a fool to even think so.
Limited when?
Republicans always want limited government intervention until they have a need! Then it straight to the courts!
What Hubris!
Perry should stop blaming others (us) for his inept managementof his campaign.
perry wants an activist judge
to override a state conducting its own business.
actually Perry will win the court case but he should not
Perry is right, because of the rule that the signature getter lives in the district prohibits the CANDIDATE from gathering signatures he cannot gather signatures.
The GOP has already proven which candidates have the organization to meet each requirement to be on the ballot, so what harm will be done to put the whole lot of them on the ballot. Make each candidate pay a registration fee that will cover the cost of printing the ballots and let the voters (too bad Virginia doesn't have closed primaries) decide.
The rules are designed for the long term candidate that has had a long time to gather the signatures.
What happens if someone checks every signature from the three (Paul, Romney, and Obama) candidates and all three fall short?
Obama vs the Republicans
Obama managed to get on the ballot, but only two Republicans could manage it, even though we have a Republican governor. The Republican Clown Car campaign rolls on....