Just days after denouncing Virginia’s ballot requirements as unfair, state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli on Thursday vowed to defend those same ballot requirements against a legal challenge from Republican presidential contender Rick Perry.
| Related Coverage |
|
|
An attorney from Cuccinelli’s office argued on behalf of the state Thursday during a preliminary hearing on Perry’s lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Richmond. The Texas governor, who failed to collect enough signatures to make Virginia’s presidential primary ballot, claims the ballot qualifications are unconstitutional.
A judge set a hearing for Jan. 13 to decide whether to block the state from mailing out absentee ballots Jan. 21 without Perry’s name on them.
Virginia Republicans announced last week that two of the four Republican candidates trying to get on Virginia’s March 6 ballot failed. Cuccinelli was quick to respond to the announcement, writing to supporters on Monday that the process he now must defend “screams out for making our ballot more accessible.” He called on lawmakers to reduce the number of signatures candidates need to qualify.
Statewide candidates must collect 10,000 signatures from registered voters, a threshold only former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Rep. Ron Paul met.
With the possibility of a drawn-out nomination fight, Virginia has become a focal point of the Super Tuesday primary. But Cuccinelli said having only two candidates on the ballot would reduce Virginia’s importance to the race.
“Virginia won’t be nearly as ‘fought over’ as it should be in the midst of such a wide open nomination contest,” Cuccinelli wrote to supporters. “Our own laws have reduced our relevance.”
But as the state’s top attorney, Cuccinelli, a Tea Party Republican who questions Romney’s conservative credentials, now must defend the very statutes he decries.
“We will be responding in accordance with the court’s schedule and will mount a vigorous defense of Virginia’s election law,” Cuccinelli spokeswoman Caroline Gibson said Thursday.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich also failed to make Virginia’s ballot. He claimed people hired by his campaign to collect signatures submitted fraudulent names, but he hasn’t said whether he will sue to get on the ballot.
Three other candidates – Rep. Michele Bachmann, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and former Sen. Rick Santorum – didn’t even try to get on Virginia’s ballot.
