FINAL UPDATE (1/4/08):
Since this article came out, Ron Paul has qualified for the Rhode Island primary. See the article "Paul, McCain, Huckabee Qualify on Rhode Island Ballot" here at Nolan Chart.
The Providence Journal reported yesterday (12/24/07) on its website that only Rudy Giuliani has filed the required 1,000 signatures for the Republican primary. Democratic candidates Obama and Clinton have also submitted the necessary minimum signatures.
So far, Ron Paul only has 484 signatures submitted. Romney and McCain have more, at 771 and 706 respectively. The others have fewer.
The deadline was moved up to Dec. 26--88 days before the Mar. 4 primary.
Most delegates for the Republican convention (Sep. 1 - 4, in Minneapolis) will be selected on Feb. 5 "Super Tuesday". However, in a race where there is no front-runner, every delegate will count. Rhode Island accounts for 20 of the GOP's 2,380 delegates.
The easiest way for a candidate to lose is to not to get on the ballot. Earlier this week, Fred Thompson failed to get on the Delaware ballot by not getting 500 signatures from prospective Republican voters. According to CBS News, he got the minimum number of signatures, but not enough of the signers were registered Republicans. That means Thompson automatically loses 18 delegates. Delaware is one of the Super Tuesday states.
In a prior article, Duncan Hunter and Tom Tancredo did not file in Virginia. Two days later (12/20/07), Tancredo withdrew from the race.
This is shaping up to be a five way race, where every delegate is precious--including these 20 in the "Hope" State. In Iowa, Giuliani is fourth at 14% in a recent poll by American Research Group. Ron Paul is nipping at Giuliani's heels at 10% in fifth place, which is a significant bump up from 4% about a week before. Huckabee has dropped to 23%, Romney 21%, McCain 17%. Thompson, Hunter and Keyes are becoming invisible at single digits.
UPDATE:
I received an email from Dan Garthwaite, coordinator for the Ron Paul Rhode Island Meetup Group (http://ronpaul.meetup.com/802), which stated that over 2,000 signatures have been turned in so far, and the rest will be turned in today. With twice the minimum number of signatures, Paul may get more signatures than any of the Republican candidates, similar to what happened in Virginia.
If anyone wants to verify the total, this is the link to the Rhode Island Secretary of State's office: http://www.sec.state.ri.us/candidates/presidential/. The deadline is today (12/26/07) at 4 p.m.
The national effort for ballot access signatures seems to focus now on Ohio. In an article by creator at Nolan Chart, signatures must be mailed in by tomorrow (12/27/07).
UPDATE 2:
As of this morning (12/29/07), there were over 2,507 Ron Paul signatures appearing at the website--more than any other Republican--with 476 of them certified so far. Republicans Romney, McCain, Huckabee, Thompson, and Giuliani also turned in more than 1,000. The only candidate to turn in more signatures is Hillary Clinton at 2,579. So far, only Barack Ombama is Qualified on Ballot, with more than 1,000 certified signatures. Great job!
©2007 Bob Nightingale, all rights reserved. You must have written permission from the author in order to republish this work.
Published: Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Last modified: Friday, January 4, 2008
The views expressed in this article are those of Bob Nightingale only and do not represent the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. Bob Nightingale is solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
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Reader Comments:
Posted By: mike
Date: 2007-12-25 11:58:56
Join the New Years Revolution. Please donate $101.08 to Ron Paul's campaign on 1-01-08 at ronpaul2008 dot com to make your new years revolution and vote for (freedom) Ron Paul. Thank you PS: please pass this on!
Posted By: usxer
Date: 2007-12-25 12:07:13
The fairest article on Ron Paul I have ever read. You should win an integrity in journalism award.
Posted By: Sara DiNicola
Date: 2007-12-25 12:12:17
I heard on RonPaulRadio.com yesterday that this lack of signatures was not really true, that we had DOUBLE the signatures needed (maybe not showing up as turned in officially, I don't quite understand)....I'm a bit confused that a Ron Paul Newsletter would come to me a day later with what I hope is "OLD" news. Hope it's just a goof-up, you guys are doing great searching for news to give us!!....-Sara DiNicola- DeKalb, IL---MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
Posted By: Hmmmm...
Date: 2007-12-25 13:35:56
Are you kidding me?!? Where are Ron Paul's ballot signatures by ratio?!? Rhode Island is a small state, there should be more Ron Paul supporters to outnumber the other candidates since we'd have a ground swell situation to take on the other candidates.
And where would the freedom-loving Rhode Islanders be? I would imagine that the 1700's and continuing freedomist mentality would be present for the whole region, not just New Hampshire. Come on, there, people, let's get with it! It's going to be Ron Paul time soon!
Posted By: zwarren69
Date: 2007-12-25 13:49:25
He has 1,000 over now.
Posted By: ChrisM
Date: 2007-12-25 15:07:22
zwarren69, that's great, but where did you get that info?
Posted By: DigitalBob
Date: 2007-12-25 15:43:33
zwarren69,
I'll be happy to publish an update, as soon as the secretary of state's office publishes a certified tally over 1,000. So far only Obama has "Qualified for Ballot Placement" at that website. Tomorrow is another day. Merry Christmas.
Posted By: expat but still a patriot
Date: 2007-12-25 16:52:27
For those that do not live in the northeast. NJ NY RI MASS AND CT. For lack of a better description, they are the communist states of america. Other than California, those states pass and influence others states to pass the most unconstitutional, unfree, and downright UNamerican laws in the country...
And yes I spent 22 yrs of my life in NJ
Posted By: creator
Date: 2007-12-25 18:10:23
Hey DigitalBob,
Thanks for the alert.
FYI, the office of the Secretary of State of RI website shows the count.... it may even be worse than you've stated if you look at certified signatures (only 44 right now.)
Here is the link: (note, you will have to "type it")
www dot sec dot state dot ri dot us slash candidates slash presidential
(never have been able to get links in comments here to work!)
Only Obama has enough certified signatures as presently reported.
Of course, there may be a delay of some sort, no telling really if that report page is "real-time." I hope the campaign is on top of this one! In any case, reports like yours can only help remedy the situation, Thanks! :)
Posted By: Chris K
Date: 2007-12-25 21:25:12
The campaign has the requisite signatures for Rhode Island. I called and spoke with the National Ballot Coordinator.
At this point, they're more concerned with Ohio
Posted By: Tom Scott, Pennsylvania
Date: 2007-12-25 22:24:11
I also contacted the meetup organizer from Rhode Island. Rhode Island's in good shape. Thank you.