Posted on 2/11/2008, 10:47:46 PM by bshomoic
By Associated Press
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - Republican Mike Huckabee's campaign wants a vote-by-vote recount of Washington state Republican caucus results that apparently gave Arizona Sen. John McCain a narrow win.
Huckabee adviser Jim Pinkerton says an attorney for the campaign is already in Washington, working with other attorneys in Arkansas to investigate their concerns about Saturday's caucus.
Pinkerton says they want their attorneys and elections experts to determine the validity of the caucus results. State party Chairman Luke Esser called the race for McCain on Saturday night with 87 percent of results in.
As of Sunday night, with more than 93 percent of results in, Esser said McCain had 3,621 precinct delegates to Huckabee's 3,398.
Huckabee's campaign released a statement Sunday saying it will be exploring all available legal options regarding the "dubious final results."
Huckabee's campaign chairman, Ed Rollins, said Luke Esser, Washington's Republican Party chairman, chose to call the race too quickly for McCain.
The former Arkansas governor on Saturday won all 36 delegates at stake in Kansas and narrowly held on to win Louisiana's primary. He's hoping those results will give him momentum going into Tuesday's elections in Maryland and Virginia.
However, he badly trails McCain, the likely nominee, in the overall race for delegates. Some say he should even step aside as a way to help the GOP maintain resources for the general election.
Huckabee described such talk as "total nonsense."
"The Democrats haven't settled their nominee either, so for us to suddenly act like we have to all step aside and have a coronation instead of an election, that's the antithesis of everything Republicans are supposed to believe," he said on "Meet the Press." "We believe competition breeds excellence and the lack of it breeds mediocrity."
Huckabee said even he was surprised by Saturday's results. Huckabee won Kansas' delegates, but fell short of 50 percent in Louisiana, the threshold needed to claim the 20 delegates that were available. Instead, they will be awarded at a state convention next weekend.
He has pledged to stay in the race until a candidate earns the 1,191 delegates needed to secure the nomination.
The Pinkertons never sleep.
I wonder how crazy/messy/dishonest the count will be in November if they can’t even count the primary right~
Count all the votes already.
yeah, no surprise here. the liberal cesspool of western washington state is about as corrupt as it gets.
it’s not yet time to lock up the nomination. We need to run all contenders through the conservative gauntlet.
The entire process, if you can call it that, stinks to high heaven. “Super delegates”...give me a break.
Could be worse. In KC the Dem caucus was done by hand vote.
I struggle to think of something more corrupt.
The reason is simple:
HUCKABEE IS EMBARRASSING McCAIN!
McCain is getting steamrollered becuse the conservative vote is no longer split among two candidates.
If he can't deal with Huckabee how is he going to handle Hillary or Obama?
Party leaders better wake up - they have saddled the wrong horse.
.
“I wonder how crazy/messy/dishonest the count will be in November if they can’t even count the primary right~”
_________________________________________________________
A peek at the last gubernatorial vote in WA might just give you a hint.
This hasn’t been resolved yet? 100% of the votes have still not been counted? I realize Washington is a blue state, but one would think that the entire vote could be counted within 48 hours. Sheeesh.
What’s worst, this is a straw poll only. The WSRP Chair trying to spin this for McCain is what has Huckabee riled. Top down style politics from the Republican boss.
The Washington Republican Party is solely responsible for this debacle, we paid for caucus and we own the ridiculous results, or should I say the WSRP X-Board does.
I think I need to get a prescription for Prozac, put it in a big bowl in the family room, eat them like M&Ms until about 2012. Only half joking.
That lends itself to my thinking. It is not like we are talking about millions of votes here. It is not Floida for goodness sake. Less than 20,000? A lot of precincts had but a handful of participants. The longer this drags out, the more nefarious it appears.
That lends itself to my thinking. It is not like we are talking about millions of votes here. It is not Floida for goodness sake. Less than 20,000? A lot of precincts had but a handful of participants. The longer this drags out, the more nefarious it appears.
I think the GOP RINOs are finding out that McCain is a serious liability, and the spin “McCain is conservative” isnt working
McCain says there is nothing wrong with what happened in Washington and he stands by the results.
Is this how this schmuck plans on running the show? 87% in and about 200 votes separate them both and he thinks that is fair?
WTF?
McCain says there is nothing wrong with what happened in Washington and he stands by the results.
Is this how this schmuck plans on running the show? 87% in and about 200 votes separate them both and he thinks that is fair?
WTF?
True Want to see even more bad PR, wait until the 19th if this is still circulating, that is our primary. The Republican’s will select 51% of their 40 total delegates from this vote. People’s heads will spin if the same kind of thing happens, cause it could, the county auditors will be tasked with conducting the vote tally and we know from the 2004 election how effectively accurate that election was conducted. LOL!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.