Ron Paul might not make it on the ballot in Illinois

I signed up for email updates from many of the presidential campaigns, including Ron Paul's. This one landed in my inbox today. It does not make me feel hopeful for the libertarian-leaning Republican.

November 11, 2007

If we don't get hundreds upon hundreds of signatures immediately in Illinois Ron Paul will have no delegates to send to the National Convention.

PLEASE HELP by doing the following:

1. We have delegates but many of those delegates HAVE NOT sent Jason Acebel [no idea who he is; no doubt a campaign official]their forms. If you are a delegate and HAVE NOT sent in your form contact Jason ASAP at ilpetitions@gmail.com and let him know when your form will be mailed. I

2. If you can take time off work or give 2-5 full days to gathering hundreds of signatures email Jason at ilpetitions@gmail.com with your phone number and best time to call. THIS IS MISSION CRITICAL. Please DO NOT contact Jason if you cannot give this amount of time. Many of you are gathering a few signatures and that is fine. Please keep up the good work but unless we get some major help soon Ron Paul will not have delegates. Jason does not have time to respond to a lot of emails. We need at least 1 person in each of the 19 districts to give us 2-5 days to get the job in that district done.

3. If you can commit full time for 1-3 days to make phone calls for Jason Acebel to call our delegates please email Jason at ilpetitions@gmail.com

Mike McHugh
National Ballot Access Coordinator
Ron Paul 2008 Presidential Campaign Committee

Sin ce this is an official email from the official Paul campaign, I have to take the words at their face value. They are worried they won't get on the ballot. And even if he does, you just know the other GOP campaigns are sharpening their pencils, awaiting a chance to challenge his signatures.

This is Paul's weakness. Much has been written about how Paul supporters, in one day, raised $4.2 million on the Internet. But it's easy to be a Ron Paul Internet Warrior sitting in front of your computer screen, eating Doritos and drinking Mountain Dew Red. It's quite a different thing to go outside on a cold, rainy day and walk door to door in your neighborhood collecting signatures and registering voters. That's hard work. I know, I've done it. Several lifetimes ago, I was a precinct committeeman for the Democrats. I backed Tom Harkin in 1992, if that tells you anything about my former politics.

Originally posted to Peoria Pundit.