Gingrich, Perry to Miss Virginia Ballot

By NEIL KING JR.

Republican Party officials in Virginia have announced that neither Newt Gingrich nor Rick Perry submitted a sufficient number of valid signatures to qualify for the state's presidential primary ballot.

The development is a significant blow to both campaigns. Virginia is one of the most delegate-rich states to hold its election contest on March 6, so-called Super Tuesday.

The Gingrich and Perry campaigns each filed more than 11,000 signatures Thursday to meet the 10,000-signature requirement, but the party ruled late Friday, after working to verify the petitions, that not enough of the signatures were valid.

The ruling is a serious setback for the Gingrich campaign in particular. The former House speaker lives in Virginia, and his campaign headquarters are there. He is also leading in most polls in the state.

But the failure underscores how challenged the campaign remains, organizationally. The Gingrich camp hired a firm earlier this month to scramble to collect the signatures, including the 400 needed from each of the state's 11 congressional districts.

On Wednesday evening, Mr. Gingrich held a rally in the state to urge supporters to help gather additional signatures in a flurry. His campaign submitted its petitions just before the deadline on Thursday.

Republican party officials for weeks had advised the campaigns to submit at least 15,000 signatures to assure they had a sufficient number of valid signings.

The ruling leaves only two candidates on the Virginia ballot: Mitt Romney and Ron Paul. The campaigns of Jon Huntsman, Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum did not submit any petitions to get on the state's ballot.

The Romney campaign has a huge volunteer base in the state and began collecting its signatures months ago. The Gingrich and Perry setbacks in Virginia will likely strengthen Mr. Romney's argument that his large organization is best able to win a state-by-state fight for delegates to the GOP nominating convention next year.

Write to Neil King Jr. at neil.king@wsj.com

via online.wsj.com