Mike Hixenbaugh
The Virginian-Pilot
©
RICHMOND
Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli said Saturday that he favors emergency legislation to allow more Republican presidential candidates on Virginia’s primary ballot.
“Hundreds of thousands of Virginians who ought to be able to have their choice among the full field of presidential primary contenders now only have a choice among two,” he said. “Virginia owes her citizens a better process.”
Virginia’s ballot-access requirements have come under scrutiny after state GOP officials recently determined former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Gov. Rick Perry failed to submit petitions bearing 10,000 valid voter signatures, disqualifying them from the primary.
Of the four Republicans who filed petitions in Virginia, only former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas made the ballot for the March 6 primary.
Cuccinelli is a Republican but has not officially endorsed a candidate in the primary – nor has Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell.
Fox News Channel reported that his proposal would allow candidates who fell short of the signature requirement onto the ballot if the Virginia State Board of Elections certifies that they are qualified to receive federal matching funds – public money offered to candidates who meet certain requirements demonstrating broad public support.
The change would allow all the major presidential candidates onto the ballot.
Later Saturday, Cuccinelli said, “Any proposal is still in flux. Some sort of requirement for ballot access – such as candidates being eligible to receive presidential election campaign federal matching funds – is still needed, whether for 2012 or beyond.”
The General Assembly would need to hold a special session this week to pass the legislation in time for the printing of primary ballots, Cuccinelli acknowledged, saying the decision “is now in the hands of our lawmakers.”
Emergency legislation must gather a supermajority of four-fifths votes from the House of Delegates and the Senate, according to the state constitution.
McDonnell is open to last-minute efforts to reform the state’s primary ballot requirements, his spokesman Tucker Martin said Saturday. But Martin questioned why most of the GOP presidential candidates failed to meet the state’s long-standing ballot requirements.
“Over the years, numerous statewide candidates from both parties have had no difficulty gathering the necessary signatures to be listed on the primary ballots,” Martin said.
“The governor did it in his statewide campaigns in 2005 and 2009.”
Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, a Romney supporter, said changing the ballot requirements now would be unfair to the candidates who gathered enough signatures. Bolling, who will be running against Cuccinelli for the Republican nomination for governor in 2013, said any changes to the ballot rules should wait until future elections.
“You can’t change the rules in the middle of the game just because you don’t like the result,” Bolling said.
Two former Democratic attorneys general – Tony Troy and Steve Rosenthal – are backing Cuccinelli’s efforts, Fox News reported.
Perry filed a lawsuit to have his name added to the ballot, but a U.S. District Court judge scheduled a hearing in that case for Jan. 13, four days after the ballots are to be printed.
Perry’s campaign applauded Cuccinelli in a statement Saturday:
“Virginia’s onerous and restrictive ballot access rules do create serious constitutional problems and undermine the rights of citizens and candidates.”
Also Saturday, lawyers for Gingrich, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum joined Perry in asking the Board of Elections and the Republican Party of Virginia to be added to the presidential ballot.
Mike Hixenbaugh, (757) 222-5117, mike.hixenbaugh@pilotonline.com
Julian Walker, (804) 697-1564, julian.walker@pilotonline.com
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Ken this is wrong. Why would
Ken this is wrong. Why would you reward failure?
Check it out
Look do some research on your own. Read Breitbart or Redstate articles. Google Virginia primary ballot access. Read CNS News. The stories are out there. I'm not making this stuff up, and they are using quotes from the leadership.
A monkey's Unlce?
How about some links with real data vice invective, he said/she said/he said?
There's no meat on them there bones.!
Post links. Don't make us hunt the entire page for a glimpse/vague reference.
Where's the beef?
Post something with verifiable proof/evidence. Then ask yourself why isn't Virginia's AG chasing those folks down?
Not Bright Enough to Get It Right, neither good enough for vote
The rules to be followed to get their names on the primary ballot have existed for years. If those that tried and failed choose to blame the "system" in Virginia, they are apparently not bright enough to play the game. Then, the VaAG sides with those goofy Gus's to change the rules of the game leading to 2012. Almost too screwed up to bother with at the CoVB, Commonwealth and National levels - the best still have not surfaced and the future just ain't that bright.
Here read this
Is makes things more clear.
http://goo.gl/KsKfv
I read it
and it proves nothing.
Not a...I'd just love to type in some colorful adjectives/invectives to respond to the writer (Andrew Cain).
Your post/link proves nothing.
It's all based upon the writer's thoughts and beliefs and has multiple factual errors in it.
Again - post "current links" (2000, 2004, 2008) which support your point of view.
Do rules matter or don't they?
I seem to recall during the presidential election of 2000 that when the issue of the fairness of the Florida "butterfly ballot" was questioned that Republicans - rightly in my view - made the point that they had been approved by the bipartisan panel appointed to do so. Republicans - again, rightly in my view - demanded that the rules be followed. Now the AG is trying to go around the system because Gingrich and Perry failed to qualify under the rules. I'm right of center but this frankly disgusts me. I think the rules should matter, not just the ones that favor the causes I prefer.
Sorry, Gingrich and Perry. Maybe next time you'll make sure you have all of your ducks in a row if you want a chance at Virginia's primary votes.
Federal Funding?
I would think that Cuccinelli probably opposes federal funding for presidential candidates, but he is using that now as a criteria to get your name on the ballot. Here's the facts: Getting 400 qualified names on the ballot from each of the Congressional districts is not that onerous if you really have any semblance of support throughout the state. With the money that Perry had, he could have hired people to do that. He screwed up, plain and simple.
Gingrich waited until the last minute, like a school kid who realized he had a paper to write. And he was a professor?
Not much else to say
Cuccinelli is one term only.
what would Virginia become?
With Cuccinelli as Gov?
When he takes steps
right out of the Hugo Chavez playbook?