From my experience attending and going to parties at the GOP debate at Oakland University, the one two candidates who had any sort of 'ground game' were Romney and Paul. Newt wasn't able to put together even a single debate watching party and neither was Perry- in contrast, Paul and Romney both had well-planned and coordinated events that spoke to their ability to activate resources at the local level.

In 2012, the GOP is going to have to run a flawless campaign to beat Obama- the fact that Newt and Perry weren't able to get on the ballot may be a sign that they should not be the candidates.

Let the experience of Gingrich, Bachmann, Huntsman, Santorum and Perry be an eye-opening object lesson to those dedicated supporters of Ron Paul who urge an independent or third party bid. The American electoral system is organized into fifty-two different sets of election laws (the federal laws and those of the 50 states and Guam). Each jurisdiction has entirely different ballot petition requirements for the Democrats and Republicans, as well as third party and independent presidential candidates.

These requirements are onerous, unduly burdensome, and chilling in their effect of squashing voters choosing candidates other than the Democrats and Republicans who draft and vigorously enforce these laws to protect their duopoly. I have been a litigant to several legal challenges to these restrictive laws at the state and federal level, some cases reaching the United States Supreme Court.

The vast majority of campaign funds raised in such efforts must be expended, not in advertisements or campaign promotion of ideas, but on petition campaigns and ballot litigation suits. The administrative overhead and manpower requirements of enlisting squads of reputable professional petitioners ("Road Warriors") in all fifty states and in every major (and minor) metropolitan area is beyond the organizational imaginations of most Paul supporters who see only the good doctor and his noble ideas. No successful ballot petition campaign relies entirely on volunteers, which is counter-intuitive to virtually all efforts of the Ron Paul Revolution.

Also remember write-in ballots in many states are illegal and voided.

Finally, such challengers are frozen out of the televised presidential debates and interviews on the mainstream network news and talk shows and relegated to the shadows.

Ron Paul is number one in Iowa and New Hampshire. He will be the GOP nominee.

As a Virginia Republican, I'd like to have seen all of them on our ballot. Competition is good for the party, and good for the nation.

I would have thought that our 13 electoral votes, and the fact that Virginia is a key swing state this time, would have spurred greater organizational effort by Newt and the rest.

However, I've got a bit of a personal conflict: as a Virginia election official, I'll be working the polls next March 6. Write-in votes not being allowed should make for a simple primary election.

And, when you're certifying the results, believe me, simple is good.

Good thing Ron Paul is on the ballot; he otherwise might be accusing the Trilateral Commission or AIPAC of shenanigans...

Not to be a nit picker, but it's 400 per congressional district, not 500.

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It is difficult to imagine a candidate for the highest office in the nation could have let something like this slip. Looks as though Newt newtered himself in Virginia. From what I gather he has done it to himself also in Missouri and Ohio. Also interesting are reports Newt failed to get on some New Hampshire county ballots.

How does this impact Newt supporters in other states. Does it build confidence in those voters? I suspect what Newt is all about anyway is the propaganda machine of talking head radio, FOX news and this site for Newt appears to have no real support of people.

Cheers.

I thought this article did a nice synthesis with the VA GOP primary situation and found it very helpful. One AP article I read used this as an opportunity to provide pro-Romney propaganda rather than report on both the solid ground games of Paul and Romney:

"It also illustrates the advantage held by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. He's essentially been running for president for five years, and his team, smaller than in 2008 but larger than most of his 2012 opponents, has paid close attention to filing requirements in each state. He will appear on the Virginia ballot, along with Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who also has run a national campaign before." (Will Lester)

In your article, Jim, I was able to find quickly who would be on the primary ballot (right there in the headline!), not just the names of two candidates who failed to qualify.

Good job, Jim, although JustACommentator is right about the correction.

In a year when George Allen will have a brutal fight on his hands, we don't need anything that alienates Conservative voters. They need to fix this. The "apparently for the first time" deal makes it look like there was a concerted effort to clear the path for Romney. I don't like the 500 from each congressional district business either. There aren't enough right-thinking folks in the Peoples Republic of Alexandria to ALLOW for more than two candidates if that's the standard.

If a candidate doesn't have the ability to follow simple rules to qualify to be on the ballot in a state, he doesn't have what it takes to be President of the United States.

For those complaining that the system was somehow rigged in Romney's favor, consider that the signature requirements are exactly the same as they were in prior years -- 10,000 total, 400 from each county. The only difference is that petition signers are now required to give their address, which makes it easier to verify the signatures are valid and that enough come from each county. (Conservatives are in favor of reasonable measures to prevent ballot fraud, right?) Under substantially the same rules, 6 Republicans qualified for the Virgina primary ballot in 2008. The difference in outcomes has more to do with the quality of the respective candidates' organizations than it does with the change in the rules.

Perry and Gingrich had 5 months to put together the necessary organization and to collect the required signatures. A newcomer to presidential politics, Romney, was able to figure it out in 2008. There's no reason these two political professionals couldn't have done the same this time. (Yes, I know that Perry didn't officially get into the race until August. That's no excuse. He had been planning a run for months and part of that plan should have been to get onto the Virginia ballot.)