Gingrich, Perry Booted from VA GOP Primary

Virginia Republicans won’t have a lot of choices in the March 6 primary.  Only Mitt Romney and Ron Paul will be on the ballot.

Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House and a prominent McLean resident who is currently leading most national polls, failed to submit enough signatures to make the ballot, the state Republican Party said.  The same fate befell Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

“After verification, RPV has determined that Newt Gingrich did not submit required 10k signatures and has not qualified for the VA primary,” the state GOP said in a Twitter post this (Saturday) morning.  Earlier, the state board of elections said that Gingrich had submitted 11,050 signatures.

The Virginia decision came just two days after a new Quinnipiac University poll showed Gingrich beating Romney 30% to 25% in Virginia. No other candidate was in double figures.

Gingrich had made a last-minute effort to round up enough signatures, making two campaign appearances in Virginia last week, and claimed to have submitted more than 11,000 but the state GOP announced Saturday morning that neither Gingrich nor Perry had managed to submit 10,000 verified signatures.

Gingrich’s campaign challenged the ruling and said it would mount an aggressive write-in campaign. Virginia law, however, prohibits write-in votes in primaries.

“Only a failed system excludes four out of the six major candidates seeking access to the ballot,” Gingrich campaign director Michael Krull said, according to Reuters.