Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich requested to be removed from an appeal to a lawsuit against the Virginia Board of Elections Monday.
A U.S. Appeals Court judge in Richmond, Virginia granted Mr. Gingrich his request on Monday to be dropped from an appeal to the lawsuit, which was originally filed jointly in December with Texas Governor Rick Perry.
Virginia requires candidates to submit a total of 10,000 signatures, with at least 400 signatures from each of Virginia’s 11 congressional districts. The deadline for turning in the signatures was December 22nd, 2011.
The former House speaker was left off of the Virginia primary ballot after failing to submit enough signatures in December.
Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Ron Paul will be the only two remaining candidates to appear on the Virginia Republican primary election ballot in March.
Virginia’s primary election occurs on Super Tuesday in March, a day that includes a total of 10 state primary elections.
Mr. Romney will make several campaign appearances in the Washington D.C. and Northern Virginia with Virginia Republican Governor Bob McDonnell this week.
There are a total of 46 delegate votes available in the Virginia primary election, which could prove crucial to Mr. Gingrich as he has pledged to stay in the race until the Republican National Convention in August. Mr. Romney already holds a substantial lead on him in terms of delegate votes, he leads the former House speaker 73-29.
Originally only Mr. Perry had filed the lawsuit to pursue getting his name placed on Virginia’s primary ballot. Mr. Gingrich, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum and former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman joined Mr. Perry in the suit shortly thereafter.
However, Mr. Perry, Mr. Huntsman and Mr. Santorum eventually stopped pursuing the lawsuit leaving only Mr. Gingrich.
In January, the court rejected Mr. Perry and Mr. Gingrich’s request to block the Virginia Board of Elections from printing absentee ballots. That request was denied, but Mr. Gingrich chose to continue to pursue his appeal of their original ruling leaving him off the Virginia primary ballot.
That leaves Mr. Gingrich with just one appeal case open, as he is appealing the Florida Republican Party’s winner take all distribution of delegate votes.
Mr. Gingrich and his campaign staff have not commented on their decision to remove his name from the appeal Monday.
