jquery.validation plugin and .load command

jquery.validation plugin and .load command

Hi.

I am hoping that someone can tell me what I am doing incorrectly. I want to use the jquery.validate plugin to validate 3 different forms. So I have put these 3 forms in a directory and I would like to include or rather .load them into a corresponding html page. The jquery.validate plugin works fine in its own html page, but It doesn't work when I include this html page in another. Why is this happing? does $ not handle complex includes?

standalone form
<code>
      <html>
    <head>
        <title>Form 1 - Issue Identification</title>
            <link href="css/styleSheet.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
            <script src="js/jquery.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
            <script src="js/jquery.metadata.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
            <script src="js/jquery.validate.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
            <script src="js/validate_watershed_forms.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
    </head>
    <body>
      
    
         <form id="issue_identification" action="" method="post">

            <div class="error" style="display:none;">
                <img src="images/warning.gif" alt="warning" width="24" height="24" style="float:left; margin: -5px 10px 0px 0px;"/>  
                <span></span>. <br clear="all" />
            </div>
            <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
                <tr>
                    <td class="label" style="vertical-align:top; padding-top: 8px;"></td>
                    <td class="field" style="font-weight: normal">
                        <div class="personal_information_control">
                            <input type="checkbox" id="personal_information" class="toggleCheck" checked="checked" style="width: auto;" tabindex="1"/>
                            <label for="personal_information" style="cursor:pointer">Include personal information.</label>
                        </div>
                    </td>
                </tr>
                <!-- generic personal information section -->
                <tr class="subTable">
                    <td colspan="2"
                        <div style="background-color: #EEEEEE; border: 1px solid #CCCCCC; padding: 10px;" class="subTableDiv">
                            <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
                                <tr>
                                    <td class="label"><label for="first_name">First Name:</label></td>
                                    <td class="field">
                                        <input maxlength="30" name="first_name" type="text" class="personal_information_required" tabindex="2" value="" />
                                    </td>
                                </tr>
                                <tr>
                                    <td class="label"><label for="last_name">Last Name:</label></td>
                                    <td class="field">
                                        <input maxlength="50" class="personal_information_required" name="last_name" type="text" tabindex="3" value="" />
                                    </td>
                                </tr>
                                <tr>
                                    <td class="label"><label for="email">Email:</label></td>
                                    <td class="field">
                                        <input type="text" maxlength="50" class="personal_information_required" name="email" value="" tabindex="4"/>
                                        <div class="formError"></div>
                                    </td>
                                </tr>
                                <tr>
                                    <td class="label"><label for="phone">Phone:</label></td>
                                    <td>
                                        <input maxlength="14" class="personal_information_required" name="phone" value="" tabindex="5"/>
                                    </td>
                                </tr>
                            </table>
                        </div>
                     </td>
                </tr><!-- end generic personal information section -->
               
                <!-- form specific text fields -->
                <tr>
                  <td class="label">
                    <label for="issue_comments">
                        I'd like to protect or I'm concerned about this land or water related issue in
                        my watershed:
                    </label>
                  </td>
                  <td class="field">
                    <textarea class="required" id="issue_comments" name="issue_comments" tabindex="6"></textarea>
                  </td> 
                </tr>
                <tr>
                    <td class="label">
                        <label for="location">Please indentify the location or waterbody.</label>
                    </td>
                    <td class="field">
                        <input type="text" class="required" id="location" name="location" tabindex="7"></textarea>  
                    </td>
                </tr>
                <tr>
                    <td class="label">
                        <label for="success_measure">
                            We've been successful when:
                        </label>
                    </td>
                    <td>
                        <textarea name="success_measure" id="success_measure" tabindex="8"></textarea>
                    </td>
                </tr>
                <tr>
                    <td>
                        <div class="buttonSubmit">
                            <span></span>
                            <input class="formButton" type="submit" value="Finish" style="width: 180px" tabindex="9"/>
                        </div><br clear="all"/>
                    </td>   
                </tr>
            </table>
        </form>
    <br clear="all"/>
   
   
    </body>
</html>
</code>

html page that includes the form
<code>
        <div id="form_container"></div>
                        <script type="text/javascript">
                            $(function() {
                                $("#form_container").load("../watershed_forms/form1_issue_identification.html");
                            });
                        </script>   
</code>

Any suggestions greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Michael