I was interested who made the list and am glad with dial up, I did not have to do my own research.

I am most impressed with Ron Paul's numbers and then Huckabee. They both went out of their way to prove the Republican Party is active in this state. Who says they are rolling over and don't care about their candidates?

If the Democrats want to make this state blue in 2008, they have a heck of allot of work ahead of them in the DPVA and NDP. After the Forgit campaign financing, I just wonder how committed and smart any of these party leaders are. Sure us grass roots members will work our butts off. But just like the WH, without good intelligent leadership the work of the grass roots seems to be lost in the losses.

Obama - I believe they filed the 28th..
Clinton - Around 1:30 if memory serves
Edwards - Around 3PM if memory serves
DPVA - 4:35
Richardson 4:38
Kucinich 4:40
Biden 4:55

I'm sorry to see Chris Dodd and Grandpa SimpsonMike Gravel missing from the list. Perhaps, some time in the next four years, Virginia will reduce its absurd petition requirements and get in line with the other 49 states.

By the way, do we know the order in which they filed, beyond Obama getting in first? I believe that determines their order on the ballot, which does have a small (but not small enough) effect on the actual vote.

The Democratic National Committee has threatened to ban Virginia delegates because of the Virginia statute's requirement of 10,000 signatures, arguing that we should not require more than 5,000 signatures.  So the Virginia Democratic Party had a plan in 2004 -- "Sign for Nine" -- and again this year -- "Sign and Date for Eight" -- where the Democratic Party promised to get 5,000 signatures for each of the candidates.  This year, the Virginia Democratic Party got over 5,000 signatures for each of them, so Dodd and Gravel only had to get 5,00 on their own.  (Actually, I think the total for the Party was about 5,600, so they would only have had to get 4,400 on their own.)  I guess they weren't very interested...

as far back as this late September diary for people to circulate petitions. I guess they didn't get much response.

it break down for the 400 signatures in each district. Like as of Dec 6, Hillary was hurting in the 6th District for signatures?

Would they still have to have that amount regardless what the party had gotten for them?

or at least that was my understanding.

... it looked like the 5,600 were pretty well distributed.  I can't swear that it was exactly 400 per CD, but it was close.

Now that I look at the Virginian-Pilot's article on the filings, I see that the SBE is going to hold a drawing next week to determine the order on the ballot.  I thought they had always used a first-filed, first-listed rule in the past. Silly me.

Ok, I know that this is only to get a candidate on the ballot, but the look of that list has got to be somewhat unsettling for Democrats.  Leans Red on the top and Blue on the bottom - much stronger number for Republicans.

But more importantly than the specific number of signatures, is what it may (or may not) say about each candidate's VA organization.  If this is an indicator, Obama is showing quite a bit of organizational strength here, while Clinton is only midpack.  To take Virginia next year we'll need a top tier organization from our candidate - the Commonwealth is not, I repeat, NOT blue at this time so we'll need everything we can muster to win Va's electoral votes.

support from Gov. Kaine, who has endorsed him.

I live on a college campus, and every day I was asked by someone to sign petitions. The college I go to is extremely liberally, yet the only petitions I was asked to sign were for conservatives, Huckabee, Thompson, and Paul were extremely active. I did sign an "sign and date for eight" one. I wasn't sure how that worked, and the workers were for Kucinich, so they were acting a little eccentric about it. but that wasn't even on campus, that was when I was at the mall. I just found it odd.

Barack Obama's campaign petition drive collected the entire 18,900 with all volunteers and does not include any from the DPVA program ... add in the 7,300 DPVA petition signatures and Democrat, Barack Obama becomes number one with 26,200.  

In addition, Obama's Virginia petition drive ended weeks ago on November 28th ...as the first candidate from either side to file ... click this link for the story

   

Wanted to clear up a few things.. it wasn't as clear cut in Virginia as the AP reported numbers would suggest.

I am with the Richardson campaign and was the one that turned in the statement with the State Board of Elections. If you go with all the signatures we had to file (7309) and the ones the party had filed on all the candidates behalf (7300) so we actually had 11006 all total.. The reason it said 14,609 was that is what the SBE rep wrote on the "Receipt" that the SBE filed out for us.

I think because both myself (with the Richardson campaign) and the Kucinich campaign had been waiting a while for the Democratic Party to file with the SBE first.. something we were told we had to do, since we didnt meet the 10,000 number on our own. In the rush The SBE Representative just filled out 10,000 on the form... I am sure this is true for the Kucinich campaign as well.

In regards to the Dodd campaign.. They tried to blame the SBE and told teh AP they didnt file because the SBE lost thier petitions. If a campaign was to file under the 10,000 signature mark they needed to wait for the Democratic Party to file first to take advantage of their signatures.. I was there from 4:10 and waited for the party to file. The Democratic Party showed up about 4:20 and filed.. the Kuchinich representaive showed up about 4:25.. We offically filed at 4:38 after the Party.. followed by the Kuchinich campaign. When we left the Biden campaign was coming in as we were leaving and filed at 4:55 and was there until after 5pm.. No one from the Dodd campaign was anywhere to be seen.

So as for the comments the Dodd campaign dropped off the petitions and the State Board lost them.. all the campaigns both republican and democrat were in and out of State Board of Election throughout the day.. and it's a small entrance where the receptionist is.. I can not believe anyone would just "drop off" something as important as this.. if the receptionist had stepped out on brake or something.  I am also pretty sure they didn't have over 10,000 on thier own like the Obama, Edwards or Clinton campaigns did. So they would have had to file AFTER The party filed and from the time the party filed till 5PM no one was there. So, I do not think the Dodd campaign is being completely honest.

Overall it really doesn't matter though.. the main point is to get on the ballot. One thing I would like to note that was not reported.. and I think it says a lot about the "Front Runner". The Clinton campaign was paying $2 a signature, the Biden & Kuchinich campaign were paying $1 a signature.. and note thats what the petitioners were getting, that doesn't include the cost of the company getting the signatures for them. So you could be talking thousands of dollars..

While the Edwards and Obama campaign didn't pay for petitioners to get signatures for them, I am pretty sure they had paid staff in the state. But I could be wrong..

What I do know for a certianty is that the Richardson campaign didn't have a single paid volunteer dedicated to signature collecting in the state, and got all thier signatures through a completely grassroots statewide effort without paying for a single signature. So in reality.. We didn't do bad at all.. if anything we are very proud of our accomplishment.

Charles Goin
Virginians for Richardson

That should be:

".. we actually had 14,609 all total.. The reason it said 10,000 was that is what the SBE rep wrote.."

Proves sometimes you should preview your post..

Charles

Does the post above mean that Edwards had 10K signatures plus the DPVA Sign for Eight apprx. 4.6K ?

Until I read the comment I was very concerned that some of the 10K signatures wouldn't be valid or some people had signed more than one petition. You may recall that last year we were asked to get a total of about 15K for Jim Webb to have a 5K cushion because there are always some signatures that can't be certified as valid for various reasons - e.g., illegible, signed more than one petition, etc.

I am still a bit concerned about the DPVA Sign for Eight adding to the candidates' individual petition signatures becuase I know quite a few people who signed both for some candidates.

Question: When will the SBE release the final certified number of signatures for each of the 11 CDs and statewide ?