The first “primary” in Virginia just took place today! And Romney won.
At 1:30 today, Mitt Romney filed 15,000 signatures to meet the requirements for Virginia presidential primaries.
Every campaign in the race will tell you that Virginia has the most difficult process to get on the ballot. You have to submit 10,000 signatures with at least 400 signatures from each 11 congressional districts. Each county or city entity has to have its own petition page for signatures and you need the voter address and in some cases the last four digits of the social security number for it to be valid. People who collect signatures have to be registered voters in Virginia (in other words you can’t farm this out to high schoolers).
The VA ballot submissions opened up yesterday and as far as we know Romney is the first candidate to file.
Other candidates like Huckabee are actually paying 50 cents per signature. Thompson and Edwards are just getting started.
It will be interesting to see on December 14th who the actual candidates will be on the ballot.
As background, there are only a handful of paid staffers for Romney in Virginia but dozens of volunteers chipped in during the elections in November to help get the signatures required. Whole Saturdays were dedicated to rounding up the needed sigs. Unlike other campaigns Romney did this with a grassroots flare and did not outsource it.
Kudos to Team Romney, Lt. Gov. Bolling, and the VA team for making this happen.
This is one more example of why Romney is the best candidate to face the formidable forces of the DEMS in the general election.
November 29th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
Is this post a joke? Is this parody of an over-the-top Romneybot or is this serious? Because I honestly can’t tell at this point.
November 29th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
Justin, I like your enthusiasm but your title is a bit over the top, as a Romney supporter I’d like to ask you to kindly change the title, it is very misleading.
November 29th, 2007 at 2:36 pm
how much did Romney pay?
November 29th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
I’m willing to put a month’s salary on a prediction that if Romney gets the nom, he will lose to the Dem in VA. It’s a LOCK.
November 29th, 2007 at 2:39 pm
One key for any aspiring bloggers here… titles are the key for “stickiness” and “eyeballs”. The title of this post is both accurate and misleading. Misleading in the sense that you’re dying to read the post to figure out what I mean.
But, in fairness I will add some quotes.
Thanks for reading!
November 29th, 2007 at 2:40 pm
UAR. If you read the post you will see that Romney didn’t pay for signatures but had a solid base of grassroots support to get the vote out.
November 29th, 2007 at 2:51 pm
just asking – since he paid quite a bit to get voters at the Iowa straw poll.
November 29th, 2007 at 2:55 pm
I know closely many people working on the Mitt petitions in Virginia. They worked their A**es off to get the signatures. When I was at the Defending the American Dream Summit in October, I was helping to collect signatures from VA residents. Mitt’s got an incredible grassroots. This whole endeavor was free for Mitt.
November 29th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
#5 Justin,
You have to consider that most posters/lurkers are all political junkies on this website, I don’t think you need the “stickiness†and “eyeballs†as you stated, most will read it without the need to lure them in with misleading titles. That being said I enjoy your opinions on most subjects, I just don’t want the “Romnots” getting all worked up over the title. Keep the good stuff coming.
November 29th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
“Dozens”….. Try hundreds. There were people from all over the state gathering signatures on their own. i had people dropping them off at my house in ithe ‘truckloads.’ It awsome to see the grassroots support he had.
November 29th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
blah blah blah…
November 29th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
Justin Hart, you need to understand there are people that are extremely sensative and if you say anything that is posative about Mitt Romney. For example, Sean made a mess in his pants!
November 29th, 2007 at 4:09 pm
Yes – whatever shall we do? Rudy or the others would have such a difficult time getting on the ballot. You’re right. I’m just going to throw in with Romney right now. (eye roll)
November 29th, 2007 at 4:15 pm
It’s not suprising. Romney’s team is the most organized and managed team.
November 29th, 2007 at 4:16 pm
OOOOOO, Huck paying for signatures … according to the prevailing wisdom around here, doesn’t that invalidate his entire campaign, or something?
November 29th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
I dont know about the rest of you, but I get sick of hearing about how every time Romney wins something, it must have been bought and paid for.
We are told he bought CPAC, Ames, and every other straw poll out there, plus he bought his IA following, and NH, and on and on. Do people really think he and his team go around writing checks to a bunch of sheep, who only follow him because he has money.
November 29th, 2007 at 4:39 pm
I already know that the Mitt haters will use the “he paid a ton to win…” spin on any early states that Mitt wins. But to Justin’s point, his wins will come because of his groundgame. I live in TX and havent had a chance to volunteer for him just yet. I dont even know if they have a base of operation here yet. But can others of you comment to me about how strong his volunteer base is in IA, NH, and the other early states? Can you paint a picture for me of the # of offices, volunteers, staffers, etc. I really think those things give him the edge in IA and NH, and the rest will fall into place after that.
November 29th, 2007 at 4:45 pm
husky,
Yeah, regardless of whether Huckabee comes in first or second in IA, his camp is going to endlessly brag about how little money they have…as if that’s an asset against the 100 million dollar woman.
November 29th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
Good point Husky but when you have nothing on Romney the only excuse is blame Romney for not playing “fair”.
November 29th, 2007 at 5:57 pm
Obama used the same early state strategy as Romney and has an enormous war chest, but it isn’t working for him. Money facilitates a great plan, but it’s the platform and the man people are voting/volunteering for, because none of the “money” goes in their pocket. Even with the Iowa straw poll, a bus ticket and an entrance fee does not make up for lost work wages, especially when none of that money goes home with an Straw Poll attendee. The money argument, that having money is not fair ignores the talent and skills Romney had to secure the money in the first place. It also ignores the fact that people are voting with their contributed dollars. And every candidate has the same opportunities in life to succeed, the same opportunities to excel, plan, etc. Romney is where he is at, able to do what he can do because of a lifetime of smart choices.
November 30th, 2007 at 1:46 am
The problem with this item is that you don’t win elections just by turning in your petition signatures before everybody else. There are still two weeks left to qualify for the Virginia ballot, and I suspect that at least Rudy, Fred, McCain, Huck, and Paul will be able to complete the nomination process too. Possibly Tancredo and Hunter might as well.
The fact that Mitt has a good organization and a lot of volunteers is nice, but it doesn’t seem to prove anything about how good a candidate he would be in the general election.
December 5th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
Note that Senator Obama’s volunteers in Virginia filed nearly 20,000 signatures the day before.
May 20th, 2009 at 7:38 pm
Methotrexate treatment for psoriatic arthritis….
Treatment of discoid lupus with methotrexate. Cost methotrexate. Methotrexate….