Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, and Rick Perry All Pay $5,000 Extra Instead of Getting 296 Valid Signatures in D.C.
January 5th, 2012The District of Columbia Republican presidential primary rules gives candidates a choice of either paying a $10,000 filing fee to the party, or else getting 296 signatures of registered Republicans and paying a fee of $5,000 to the party. These rules changed recently; previously all candidates were required to collect 296 signatures, but the new law gives them a choice of either paying the higher fee and no signatures, or the lower fee plus signatures.
Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, and Rick Perry all chose the $10,000 filing fee so as to avoid collecting signatures. The only Republicans who chose the $5,000 filing fee plus the signatures are Jon Huntsman and Mitt Romney. Rick Santorum will not be on the ballot. However, D.C. permits write-ins in presidential primaries and does count write-ins in presidential primaries if it appears that the write-in candidate may have polled enough write-ins to get even one delegate to the national convention. UPDATE: although the Democratic and Green Party presidential primaries permit write-ins, the Republican presidential primary does not. This is a decision made by each party.
The law lets each party set its own fee. The Democratic Party let candidates either submit a petition, or pay a $2,500 fee. President Obama is the only candidate who filed, and he did it with the petition, which required 1,000 signatures from registered Democrats.
The Green Party presidential primary will carry Jill Stein, who got on the ballot by collecting 41 signatures of registered Greens.
January 5th, 2012 at 9:46 am
How many zillion ballot access laws to worry about if one is a Prez candidate — needing an army of lawyers and computer folks to keep track of the various regime laws and machinations ???
January 5th, 2012 at 10:33 am
[...] Richard Winger: “The District of Columbia Republican presidential primary rules gives candidates a choice of either paying a $ 10,000 filing fee to the party, or else getting 296 signatures of registered Republicans and paying a fee of $ 5,000 to the party… Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, and Rick Perry all chose the $ 10,000 filing fee so as to avoid collecting signatures. The only Republicans who chose the $ 5,000 filing fee plus the signatures are Jon Huntsman and Mitt Romney. Rick Santorum will not be on the ballot.” Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire Tweet This Post Posted in Breaking News Tags: Avoid, Extra, getting, signatures, Three « Infographic: Best Debate Moments You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. [...]
January 5th, 2012 at 7:09 pm
[...] Richard Winger: “The District of Columbia Republican presidential primary rules gives candidates a choice of either paying a $10,000 filing fee to the party, or else getting 296 signatures of registered Republicans and paying a fee of $5,000 to the party… Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, and Rick Perry all chose the $10,000 filing fee so as to avoid collecting signatures. The only Republicans who chose the $5,000 filing fee plus the signatures are Jon Huntsman and Mitt Romney. Rick Santorum will not be on the ballot.” [...]
January 6th, 2012 at 1:37 am
[...] Ballot Access News brings us the interesting news that the presidential campaign of Rick Santorum has completely failed to get on the ballot in Washington D.C., repeating the failure of Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry in neighboring Virginia. The threshold for getting on the DC ballot is quite low for Republican candidates, raising new questions about the wherewithal of the Santorum for President organization. [...]
January 6th, 2012 at 8:07 am
The Santorum comedy skit I guess is coming to an end.
January 7th, 2012 at 2:39 pm
People are wising up to this Santorum guy. He is one of the top 5 most corrupt washington insiders. He flip flops on what he says and what he does. And there is very little difference between him and obama. They both support the bank bail outs, tarp funds, stimulus package, raising the debt ceiling. This ISNT the type of person I want in washington!
January 18th, 2012 at 4:02 am
[...] single-payer health care, economic justice and women’s rights. In a nice bit of irony, she actually followed the correct procedure to get on the ballot in Washington, D.C., whereas some of the Republican freeloaders – er, I [...]