Newt Gingrich Under Investigation For Petition Fraud

Sometime in late December, through sheer incompetence, Newt Gingrich failed to get on the Virgina ballot despite the fact that all the candidates had five months to gather enough signatures to qualify, received a memorandum from the Virginia Republican Party that explained the validation process for candidate petitions in the presidential race to qualify for the primary ballot in October and sent out verification requirements to all campaigns in March of this year.

Regardless of the fact that Newt Gingrich had advanced notice from the Virginia Republican Party about what it will take to get on the ballot, he was determined to get on the ballot. He vowed to wage a write in campaign until he discovered that a write in campaign is illegal in Virginia. Frustrated that he wasn't on the ballot, the former Speaker of the House complained that his failure to get enough signatures to get on the ballot was alot like Pearl Harbor.

Another candidate who failed to make the Virginia ballot was Rick Perry. He sued to get his name on the ballot but the judge rejected the lawsuit because all the candidates waited too long to sue. This was a major setback for all of the candidates who didn't qualify. 

Ken Cuccinelli, the Attorney General for Virginia announced that he planned fix the problem by filing emergency legislation to allow more candidates to make it on the ballot but then backed off on the idea.

We are now learning that Newt Gingrich was so desperate to get on the Virginia ballot that he's now under investigation for petition fraud: 

In late December, after Gingrich failed to turn in enough valid signatures to qualify in Virginia, he was caught on video tape telling a supporter in Iowa that the reason for the failure was due to a campaign worker who created 1,500 fraudulent signatures.

"We turned in 11,100, we needed 10,000, 1,500 of them were by one guy who, frankly, committed fraud," Gingrich is seen and heard saying in video originally aired by CNN.

The signatures prompted the State Board of Elections to send the case to the Virginia Attorney General's office two weeks ago. The Deputy Secretary of the SBE called the actions described by Gingrich, if true, "definitely an illegal act."

Newt Gingrich, not a man to waste an opportunity to whine about the primary election process is now complaining about his major loss in Florida by challenging Florida’s “winner take all” rule and is demanding proportional award of delegates even though Newt Gingrich knew about Florida's winner take all rule before the election but waited after the election to complain about it: 

Asked about the challenge on FOX News' "Hannity" program Thursday night, Romney said, "It would be nice if he challenged the rules before he lost, rather than after he lost."

Romney also compared the legal challenge to the one Gingrich unsuccessfully launched after missing out on making the ballot in Virginia.

The leaders of the Florida Republican Party sent out a memo that effectively takes the wind out of Newt's challenge by explaining that Florida has already been punished for moving their primary election up on the calendar: 

"With regard to proportionality, the RNC does not have the authority to intervene in a state’s primary plans beyond the imposition of the Rule 16 penalties.  A contest procedure exists for challenges to a state’s delegation or delegates.  The RNC cannot consider any issue regarding Florida’s delegation unless and until a proper contest is brought.  If a contest is properly and timely filed, the Committee on Contests and the RNC will have the opportunity to hear the contest and determine if there are any further steps to be taken beyond the penalties that have already been imposed"

So far, Mitt Romney will get to keep his 50 delegates that he won from the Florida primary. Newt's strategy for challenging Florida is to make sure that Romney doesn't win the Republican nomination even if Gingrich himself doesn't win either: 

The strategy of the Gingrich campaign is not necessarily to win 1144 delegates, as much as it is to deny Romney the 1144 delegates needed to secure the nomination and attempt to convert the “not Romney” delegates to his slate at the convention. Taking the steps to alter Florida’s winner take all method to a proportional method works to Gingrich’s delusional fait accompli.  If he can’t win the nomination, no one else should either.

This is why conservatives cannot support Newt Gingrich because he is as narcissistic, impulsive and arrogant as Bill Clinton and Obama and will stop not nothing to get his way even it it means potentially engaging in voter fraud, complaining about the results of the primary after instead of before the election, or damaging the Republican Party in the process of trying to win.