@VA_GOP (the Republican Party of Virginia) tweeted:
After verification, RPV has determined that Newt Gingrich did not submit required 10k signatures and has not qualified for the VA primary.
NB: Virginia is Gingrich's home-state. He's lived there since he resigned from congress.
Nelson Muntz says:
UPDATE: Perhaps Newt has been hitting the eggnog a bit too heavily this week? As a followup to his home-state FAIL, without even stopping to catch his breath, Gingrich attempted and masterfully succeeded in the difficult and rarely attempted Double Putz: Gingrich issued a statement which said, "We will work with the Republican Party of Virginia to pursue an aggressive write-in campaign to make sure that all the voters of Virginia are able to vote for the candidate of their choice." To which Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor, responded that Virginia Code section 24.2-529 prohibits write-in ballots in primaries:
§ 24.2-529. Primary ballots.
The primary ballots for the several parties taking part in a primary shall be composed, arranged, printed, delivered, and provided in the same manner as the general election ballots except that at the top of each official primary ballot shall be printed in plain black type the name of the political party and the words "Primary Election." The names of the candidates for various offices shall appear on the ballot in an order determined by the priority of the time of filing for the office. In the event two or more candidates file simultaneously, the order of filing shall then be determined by lot by the electoral board or the State Board as in the case of a tie vote for the office. No write-in shall be permitted on ballots in primary elections.
update #2 after the jump
UPDATE #2:
After they wiped some of the egg[nog] from their faces, Gingrich and his side-kick campaign director posted this on Facebook
... This was not due to a lack of effort by our volunteers, but the cumbersome process in Virginia.
...Newt and I have talked three or four times today and he stated that this is not catastrophic
...Newt and I agreed that the analogy is December 1941: We have experienced an unexpected set-back, but we will re-group and re-focus
... but in the end we will stand victorious.
"Are you pondering what I'm pondering?" I think so Newt, but when I imagine you and your campaign director discussing Pearl Harbor and what you're going to do next, I hear the voices of Pinky and the Brain singing this tune[2]:
final chorus:
People just need to be led!
(By a mouse with a big head!)
To their weakness, they'll succumb!
(If you give them chewing gum!)
It may bother them a bit.
(But they'll soon get over it)
They won't whine when I'm the czar of all that we see, near and far!
Rinse and repeat.
[2] - this tune is a pastiche of
The Infernal Galop from the opera
"Orpheus in the Underworld" by the French composer
Jacques Offenbach. Or, it's more commonly known as the
"Can Can Song".
[*] -
"Frailty, thy name is woman!" - is from Hamlet (I, ii, 146)