David Goldman / AP Photo
Rick Perry will not relinquish the Virginia primary without a fight. The Texas governor is appealing a federal judge’s ruling last week that he and three other GOP candidates should not be included on Virginia’s Republican primary ballot. Currently, only Mitt Romney and Ron Paul have qualified for the state’s election, but Perry’s lawyers are requesting that he either be included on the ballot immediately or that the state refrains from printing ballots until his appeal is heard. Perry has argued that Virginia’s primary requirements—that candidates obtain 10,000 registered voters’ signatures, 400 of which must come from the state’s 11 congressional districts, and that their petitions only be circulated by Virginia residents—are unconstitutional. The judge who ruled against Perry and his fellow candidates in the case agreed that the law may, in fact, be unconstitutional, but explained that the merits of the law should have been challenged before the candidates applied—and failed—to meet the requirements. included in the primary.