I absolutely feel ill ..

O'Malley has been not been treated fairly by the DNC.
They should be helping all of our Democratic candidates; instead they work solely to elect Hillary. There is no way to know how O 'Malley would be doing if the DNC and the media hadn't repeatedly dissed and/or ignored his candidacy. I would be absolutely devastated if Bernie hadn't made it on the ballot.

Or, just the "real" ones?

A candidate who can't collect 1,000 signatures in a mall parking lot over a weekend isn't organized enough to be President.

thanks so much for this useful comment.

It's the candidates' responsibility.

of candidates for seats up and down the tickets across the nation by pampering Mr. O'Malley. I like O'Malley a LOT, but it was HIS job to make himself a viable candidate that the DNC could promote, and this time he failed -- abysmally. Hopefully, he will try again in future and do much better for himself, and for us.

Once, again, the DNC is NOT the FEC or even the League of Women Voters. Its job is to promote the election of many dozens of Democratic Party candidates for offices at all levels in all states and territories -- not to sabotage the chances of dozens of Democratic candidates to be "fair" to minor candidates.

Martin and his supporters deserve a helpful DNC...

Sorry to elleng and the rest..

especially elleng.

failing to make themselves potential winners -- before the first debate. I don't blame Bernie for registering and not doing even better -- he's fulfilled his goals and served the Democrat cause mostly splendidly.

I accept Martin's not doing better ONLY if he was running to get his name out there for another run someday. He has so much to offer, but he MUST sell himself to the electorate. That is not, in itself, the DNC's job.

to valid candidates, either.

front-runner party support ended long ago. The DNC is doing its job to elect as many Democrats to seats as possible, or at least earnestly trying to.

So you can dance better?

and someone else has a thread in here too about it..

Thank for the info

There is phenomenon of some kind. I assume it's not the polling. I could see all three candidates neck and neck, but not single digits. People choose what they like, believe, fear, etc., in ways that can probably be really complex. He'll be back! Let's end this year on a high note.

I never heard one person in Ohio say he was for O Malley. We also noticed that many of his petition circulators came in from Maryland , and as such indicated lack of organization here in Ohio and the potential they were paid petition circulators but even if he paid $5 for every collected signature he spent only a few thousand dollars on this effort. I do not see a lot of canvassers for Hillary either at this point and I know their meetings in my county are not well attended and occur half as frequently as the better attended Bernie Meetings. So while we Bernie Sanders complain about our lack of canvassing and we do obviously contact a lot mo0re people with what looks like better results than we got for Obama at this stage of either his 2008 or 2012 campaign. I was a well regarded canvasser in both and team leader in the town where I live. Furthermore Bernie appeals to so many people even in republican dominated neighborhood in the last election, we really do not depend strictly on democrats to support Bernie and see a lot of crossover support.
I cannot lie to you and say I am really sorry that O malley will not be on Ohio's ballot' But I will be honest and state it will improve the debates as the two leading candidates, the two whom seem at this point much more viable candidates than Martin, will be each able to have more time to represent themselves and their views, The DNC and commentators favored Hillary, and recognized Bernie had to have some time and O Malley's remarks were about not getting a fair share were spot on. But I never saw anything that indicated Martin connected with the audience or with the public. His campaign seemed directed to establishing his competence as Hillary's tries tom do , but voters are used to believing that candidates that discuss how great they are rather than the issues are usually untrustworthy on the issues, This appears to be a big negative for Hillary. And of course many residents or former residents of Maryland on this site warned us about o malley. I was so in tank for Bernie by that time it did nothing for me and I do not even remember specifics except they questioned his methods and his record.
Bur now what, as they say as Ohio goes so goes the Nation. O malley has already eliminated his chances of winning Ohio and is still polling in the single digits. Sometime back, I started asking why he did not drop out and let the horse race proceed uninterrupted as I believed he has no chance due to exceptionally low polling numbers and the lack of enthusiasm indicated by his lack of visible or vocal supporters here in Ohio.
So today I ask again why does he not drop out, going on at this point, after losing the 159 delegates from Ohio, delegates already and polling so low only supports Hillary by limiting the debate time and news coverage of what appears the two viable candidates. If his supporters favor Hillary then they will push for Him to stay in but if they want a more educated on the issues election they will encourage O Malley to drop out before the debate or even now. I have not heard any explanation from O malley or his campaign staff explaining this fatal in my opinion mistake. I believe O malley is competent and for this obvious a campaign tragedy to occur I believe in his heart O Mallet knew nothing is going to change and probably just let this occur.
So over the last few days Martin O Malley has went from not being not well known and having few followers in comparison to other candidates to a candidate whose campaign has to write off a significant numbers of delegates and even if nominated faces disaster from losing the voters of Ohio since he will not be on the ballot here. The sooner he drops out the better and I think that he knows this too.

A Wall o' Text is a pain to read.

can you believe it?? my head is reeling

So appearing on ballots is really beside the point, for him.

I met Gov O'Malley two years ago and running for 2nd place is running for nothing.. He has some great ideas.. cannot believe they did not get enough valid signatures..

son of a gun.. this just ruined my year.. I do not mind being beaten in a fair election.. but this.. makes me so mad I have smoke coming out of my ears.. there is no excuse for it..

Hillary Clinton and/or Bernie Sanders and want to vote for them, but aren't necessarily looking to vote against O'Malley?

... it makes sense that a lot of people would make that assumption, or jump to the erroneous conclusion, that in order to support one candidate, you must also be against another candidate. It appears to me that for many folks, they prove their "love" of their favorite candidate is to emphasize how much they "hate" everyone else. So naturally, they assume this mindset must be equally true for everyone else.

--
Note to jury: I've not called out any specific group or any specific supporters of any specific candidate. My statement can be applied to any supporter of any candidate.

I think he's serious about campaigning for the presidency, even if he realizes this may not be his year. He's doing a good job of getting his ideas and name out there. Being a presidential candidate in 2016 gives him a leg up if he decides to run again in 2024.

Bet we know who he'll be throwing his support to.

What the hell people?? .. how did that happen??

and then the repug ohio sec state husted 'counted.' Remember husted???

How is O'Malley a greater threat than the other Democratic candidates? It doesn't make sense unless he wants someone else to get the nom.

It's ridiculous to blame this on anybody else. Every politician knows that you must obtain many more than the minimum number of signatures.

It's really not that uncommon for people to sign with fake names, invalid address, or not actually be registered.

Typically, candidates/referenda/etc gather about 150% of the signatures needed as a cushion against this. They didn't.

still sux for the campaign, though

I just don't understand

"everybody's human"

sometimes we screw up

of the Clintons yukking it up w/Obama shows how "sweet" they can be toward those they've attempted to destroy in the past. They'll use ya when they need ya.

No way the Obamas, any of them, could ever truly forgive that.

Because Barack, Michelle, hell even Bernie Sanders will all be lying their asses off for Hillary

I can watch pure corruption when I have to.

But if you truly mean what you say, then why not do everything you can to make sure it does not come to pass. Why not?

and rally around the nominee, regardless of who that person is.

to choose our eventual nominee.

If you care, fight for it.

off the table while we can.

I just sent a pretty big gift (for me) to Bernie.

There are so many ways to throw a nasty ol' coronation into the trash where it belongs.

cuz he will be the nom

not that he would lie anyway....

We can be certain the Clintons knew this was coming. Poor O'Malley knows who he's going to have to support.

I am so sorry about what has happened to Democratic politics. We have a REAL problem.

This is all about Ohio ballot access laws. O'Malley failed to obtain the necessary number of signatures, thus he failed to meet the requirements and will not be on the primary ballot.

Virginia has an even more stringent set of rules than Ohio.

All 3 candidates should be on every single ballot.

States should have a process in which they tell candidates about invalid signatures in time for them to get more.

The process shouldn't be: Surprise, you're not on the ballot.

IT would be embarrassing for him to continue.

and couldn't quite understand what I was seeing.

Now I do.

And I'm about 90% sure what caused it.

Fellow Democrats, there is something rotten in the Democratic Party, and if we don't want to end up like Prince Hamlet, we'd better take care of it -- sooner than later. The time for dithering is over.

Seriously.

Any good 3rd-wayer should be able to sniff out the place where all the money and power reside.

Submitting 1,200 signatures when you need 1,000? Insane.

Like Iowa?
http://wcfcourier.com/martin-o-malley-full-speech-dec-waterloo-ia/youtube_c832cc4c-ae51-11e5-8cdb-cb8fa78a746f.html

"We decided to plow through, quite literally sometimes

...It's Iowa. People wait here until the last couple of weeks.” - Martin O'Malley ‪#?NewLeadership‬ ‪#?IACaucus‬

Guess you missed the call from the campaign, inviting you to a 'send off' event/concert in Baltimore January 28, before the Iowa caucuses.

Too bad.

on the Sunday talk shows and was shocked by the changed man I saw in the Dem debates. He seemed terribly uneasy, like something was really bothering him, and at one point I wondered if he were physically ill.

But I also know that candidates live in the inner circles where the rest of us can't see and am positive that what goes on there is not for the faint of heart.

I hope he's going to be okay politically, because I've been working up quite a bit of anger over this recent development. It just doesn't make any sense.

...to anyone who's actually paid attention to the man. He's affable, smiling, and extremely accessible; interacting one-on-one with more voters than his rivals.

His rival supporters are still sore about being confronted in the debate. Contenders better get used to that.

LOTS of nonsense happening around here.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, bigtree!

His policy proposals should be studied and the many good ones should become part of the democratic party platform. Especially the ones on reducing police violence and reigning in Wall Street.

Happy New Year to you!

If Bernie hadn't entered the race, he would have been my first choice.

I'm shocked and sorry about this Ohio business.

I've been disappointed in O'Malley recently, but this has got to be a hard pill to swallow. I see no need to not be empathetic...

or organization.

And why so many of them were not valid would be where I'd start.

Then double check other states' ballots to make sure it doesn't happen again to correct it.

No time to linger over this - check other states ASAP.

Campaigns/referenda/etc usually try to gather 150% of the signatures they need to have a cushion for invalid signatures.

People write down bad info, or info that doesn't match their registration, or aren't registered as Democrats, or other problems.

in Iowa or New Hampshire, he likely won't be in the race by mid-March when Ohio votes.

Either way, this disappointment should not crush O"Malley supporters. It is a setback, but it does not have to be the end.

NT

and then Super Tuesday with incredible momentum.

If O'Malley is has risen into contention in Iowa and through to Super Tuesday, his campaign will survive losing Ohio.

If O'Malley hasn't risen into contention in Iowa or New Hampshire and established himself as a leading contender through Super Tuesday, then his campaign likely won't make it to Ohio anyway.

Missing the Ohio deadline is a bad thing, but it isn't a tragic thing.

If winning Ohio was the defining issue of the campaign, then Sherrod Brown would have run and he'd be the next Democratic nominee, but Brown didn't run because Ohio isn't the nation and isn't but a single state in the fabric of the entire nationwide primary.

Very disappointing for his supporters, really sorry!

It was posted here on DU the link to go to the states to determine the requirements. The signatures have to be valid and I assume are registered Democratic voters in the state in which they seek to get on a ballot. The work of gathering the signatures is left to individual candidates. Somewhere in MOM's team someone dropped the ball and there was not enough valid signatures gathered.

just pay a filing fee

and yes, I've volunteered with campaigns to get signatures for ballot access

Election day.

I also had them for Bernie and Hillary. It only seemed fair to me to include them all on the table.

but not Hillary. Sorry about this unfortunate development, O'Malley supporters.

... somehow screwed up the petitions and was disqualified from the Democratic primary ballot for his re-election.

He ended up mounting a write-in campaign and won overwhelmingly, but it was embarrassing for a while.

n/t.