Virginia’s Newt Gingrich Scratched from Virginia Primary

As a Virginia registered Republican, presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich is eligible to vote in Virginia’s GOP Primary on March 5, 2012, but he isn’t eligible to be on the ballot. His campaign in the Old Dominion failed to get the signatures of 10,000 fellow Virginians on its nominating petition.

This really hits him where he lives. Newt Gingrich moved to McLean in 1999, where he and Callista Bisek moved in together in May 2000. They were married in Fairfax County that August. Mr. Gingrich has voted in McLean since 2002.

To emphasize belief in the free market, the Gingrich campaign paid for signatures and claimed it had acquired 10,000 legitimate voter signatures with the required statewide distribution. Now that his effort has failed, Mr. Gingrich blames the system. With typical humility, he compared this personal setback to Pearl Harbor, the military action that killed hundreds and started global war. The petition failure may not mark the campaign’s Waterloo, but the candidate’s hysterical reaction to it wins no medals for valor.

Mr. Gingrich said he will run “an aggressive write-in campaign” in Virginia, an innovative tactic since state law does not allow write-ins in primary elections. Of course, if he takes the Virginia GOP to court about this and the ruling goes against him, Mr. Gingrich may have the judge arrested.

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