In Virginia, only Mitt Romney and Ron Paul are on the presidential ballot, seeing former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich being left out in the cold along with Governor Rick Perry and the rest of the GOP field. The GOP of Virginia claim that the former Speaker failed to turn in the required 10,000 signatures in order to appear on the ballot.
This begs two questions, really: First, is access to the ballot in Virginia just too difficult? Or, secondly, have the candidates simply failed to put forth credible organizational skills to ensure they get on the ballot?
Rick Perry's communications director has said, "Virginia ballot access rules are among the most onerous and are particularly problematic in a multi-candidate election," which can be loosely translated to mean, "there are too many candidates in this competition for support, and they beat us." What was Perry's response? To file suit. Remember, this is one of the candidates who has campaigned on tough tort laws to restrict frivolous lawsuits.
Newt Gingrich has vowed to wage a write-in campaign, however, they aren't allowed in Virginia. So, he filed suit as well.
In my estimation, the ballot access in Virginia is tough, yet the candidates for president knew this - or should have known this - long ago and it's part of the price to pay when running for public office. Although the Perry suit should determine whether portions of the ballot access rules are unconstitutional, filing suit should not be the preferred response of candidates when something does not go their way due to the flaws of their own campaigns.
We must remember that this is not a race for class president, but rather President of the United States and it is one where leadership is critically important, and organizational skills are paramount.
While the two major candidates who made the ballot in Virginia, Romney and Paul, have shown leadership and the skill set necessary to put people in place to ensure ballot access for their candidacy, I'm not sure that either candidate is really the answer we need right now in the GOP.
Virginia is a "swing state" where we will see the most proverbial bloodshed in the race for president, and while most of us in Oklahoma aren't too concerned about Virginia, it should at the very least give us pause.
David
