VIRGINIA: GOP Candidates Sue Over Ballot

The GOP candidates who didn't make Virginia's primary ballot are suing. Only Mitt Romney and Ron Paul submitted the necessary 10,000 petition signatures in time.

Four candidates left off the Virginia Republican primary ballot joined Rick Perry Saturday in suing the state's board of elections over laws they say are "unconstitutional." Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum joined the lawsuit, originally filed Tuesday, challenging provisions that determine who can appear on the primary ballot. On Wednesday, Gingrich cited fraud as the reason he didn’t make it onto the ballot, laying the blame on one of his campaign's paid volunteers. "We hired somebody who turned in false signatures. We turned in 11,100 – we needed 10,000 – 1,500 of them were by one guy who frankly committed fraud,” Gingrich said.

VA Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli initially appeared receptive to changing the rules so that all the candidates would appear on the ballot, but yesterday he retreated.

"After working through different scenarios with Republican and Democratic leaders to attempt to make changes in time for the 2012 Presidential election, my concern grows that we cannot find a way to make such changes fair to the Romney and Paul campaigns that qualified even with Virginia's burdensome system."

Cuccinelli, incidentally, is running for governor but has refused to resign ahead of the election as is traditionally done.