Gingrich, Santorum, and Bachmann fail to field full slate of delegates in NH

Newt Gingrich might be the frontrunner but he has a lot of catching up to do as far as building a credible campaign organization.

The New Hampshire Journal is reporting that the former speaker, as well as Rick Santorum and Michele Bachman has failed to field a full slate of delegates for the primary next month:

As recently as two weeks ago, the Gingrich campaign was apparently unable to name 40 New Hampshire supporters of his presidential campaign.

Candidates needed to file their slates of 20 delegates to the National Convention, along with 20 alternates, with the Secretary of State by November 18. The Gingrich campaign filed a partial slate of 14 delegates and 13 alternates, leaving 13 slots vacant. Among the 27 names Gingrich listed are three members of his staff.

Rick Santorum (12 delegates and 12 alternates) and Michele Bachmann (18 delegates) also filed partial slates. Gary Johnson (10 delegates and one alternate) and Buddy Roemer (eight delegates) also had incomplete filings.

In contrast, Herman Cain, Jon Huntsman, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, and Mitt Romney all filed full slates of 40 people.

No doubt Gingrich would be able to identify 40 committed supporters this week, in the wake of his endorsement by the New Hampshire Union Leader and riding a wave of interest in his candidacy. But the campaign's failure to do so just nine days prior to the paper's endorsement is an indicator of the extent to which the campaign is starting from scratch - and could signal a lack of basic organization. Filing a slate of delegates isn't complicated, but it does require advance planning, as each delegate or alternate needs to sign his or her own form. It's not the sort of thing that can be left to the last minute.

This is the sort of thing that shouldn't slip through the cracks. And it reinforces one of the major criticisms that has dogged Gingrich since he came to Congress in 1979; details don't concern him. He is very good at conceptualizing but takes no interest in how anything gets done.

This is not the worst thing a president can be guilty of. But in Gingrich's case, it leads to slovenly organization as his staff has always trailed behind the boss trying to catch up with his overactive mind. Small details can't help but be ignored or forgotten as a man who always tries to see the Big Picture fails to pay attention to what's going on right in front of him.