Esser issued a statement congratulating McCain on a “hard-fought win,” and Huckabee on a “strong second-place finish.”
Ed Rollins, Huckabee campaign chairman, directly challenged Esser’s move, saying the count was incomplete because the other 12.8 percent of precincts could tip the scales since McCain was beating Huckabee by only a couple hundred votes.
“The chairman showed very bad judgment in stopping the voting last night when announcing John McCain had won, when there was less than a 200-vote margin between the two candidates,” Rollins told FOX News in an exclusive interview. “You never announce a vote, in my 40 years of politics, I have never know anybody to announce a vote count before the vote is counted.”
Rollins was quick to say that the campaign was not accusing the McCain camp of anything untoward, and the issue lies solely with Esser’s call. He added that campaign attorneys have attempted to contact Esser’s lawyers but had not yet received a return phone call.The final results came during the night after the race had been declared too close to call and Washington GOP election officials decided to call it a night. Esser said a final tally would not come until Monday.
Speaking in a television interview earlier in the day, the former Arkansas governor indicated that he wasn’t ready to give up on the Washington state results but did not discuss specifics.
“We’re looking at some legal issues. We’re not ready to concede that one,” Huckabee said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Washington state Republicans send 40 delegates to the national convention, this year being held in Minneapolis-St. Paul from Sept. 1-4. Like Louisiana, about half of the delegates are chosen by presidential primary, which will be held in Washington on Feb. 19. The remainder come from the caucus and convention process.
Despite the outcome in Washington, Huckabee had a good showing on Saturday, winning the Kansas Republican caucuses by a landslide and edging out McCain in the Louisiana GOP presidential primary.
Huckabee said even he was surprised by the results in Kansas, where he won all of the state’s 36 delegates to the convention, and Louisiana, where no delegates were awarded because no candidate reached the 50 percent threshold.
He added that he feels strongly about his ability to pull out a win in Virginia and Maryland on Tuesday — during the Potomac Primaries, along with Washington, D.C. — after taking Louisiana and Kansas.
“I think we’ll get a nice little bump out of what happened in Kansas,” Huckabee told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“If you look at where our votes are coming from, it’s clearly from the conservatives. I think that makes sense. I am the most conservative candidate left standing,” he later said.
But Huckabee trails McCain badly in the delegate count, 719 to 234 before the Washington results are included. The eventual nominee needs to secure 1,191 delegates, and only about 1,000 are still in play. He also has only about 27 percent of the vote in recent Virginia polling compared to 55 percent for McCain.
Karl Rove, former senior adviser to President Bush, said while McCain hasn’t won over conservatives yet, in the 2000 GOP primary race, Bush didn’t get more than two-thirds to three-quarters of the vote until a month after McCain, his principal opponent, stepped out of the race.
“It is impossible for Governor Huckabee to win the nomination,” said Rove, a FOX News contributor. “He would have to win 83 percent of the delegates in the contest after Super Tuesday,” which Rove said can’t be done after a loss in Washington and a beauty contest in Louisiana.
“I am not certain I’d take a lot of solace from yesterday. As we get into these big states with big primaries, I think we’ll see a consolidation around McCain,” Rove said.
But unlike Mitt Romney, who dropped out of the GOP race on Thursday, Huckabee said he is not ready to hand over the nomination to McCain. He also said he isn’t moved by Rove’s prognostications.
“Karl Rove has also maxed out personal contributions to John McCain so I’m not saying he doesn’t know what he’s talking about politically, but he’s not infallible either. And the point is, Karl is a supporter of John McCain,” Huckabee said while campaigning at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., which was founded by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell.
“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,” Huckabee told NBC. “We believe competition breeds excellence and the lack of it breeds mediocrity.”
A look at exit polling from Louisiana shows that McCain remains very unpopular among Republicans who consider themselves very conservative. Speaking to “FOX News Sunday,” President Bush said McCain may have to work harder.
“He is a conservative. Look, he is very strong on national defense. He is tough fiscally. He believes the tax cuts ought to be permanent. He is pro-life. His principles are sound and solid as far as I’m concerned,” Bush said.
Huckabee said he, his campaign team and supporters are fired up by the record hits and contributions on his Web site, and he is going to continue to demonstrate differences between him and his opponent, particularly on issues like tax cuts and immigration.
Huckabee acknowledged that he will vote for for the Republican nominee no matter who it is, rejected the notion that he’s on any short list to be McCain’s running mate and refused to give it consideration at this point.
“I’m not going to be asked. I think it’s pretty evident that there would be a whole lot of people on the list long, long before me, and one of them would say ‘yes,”‘ Huckabee said.
It’s peculiar, that’s for certain.
Good for Huckabee. He should fight those lying pubbies. Boy, they will stop at nothing.
It might be good to call a talk show about this.
Bill Cunningham is on tonight, and likes Huckabee, although Duncan Hunter was his first choice.
You must call the show right after 10 PM, ET, if you want to have a good chance to get on the show, though.
Cunningham’s # is 1-800-843-2441
MORE MEDIA ATTENTION will force the Washington State GOP to do the right thing.
Huckabee won at least 2 out of 3 primaries, and maybe THREE out of THREE. This might be the start of win after win for Huckabee.
Huckabee CAN win, and he’s better than McCain on the life issue, our 2nd amendment rights and understands the Red China threat.
Also, Minuteman Gilchrist and Duncan Hunter endorsed him.
Count Every Vote!
This episode could lead to conservative sympathy for Huckabee, even though he isn’t a favorite of most of them.
http://youdecide08.foxnews.com/2008/02/10/huckabee-challenges-washington-caucus-results/
That’s the least anti-Huckabee piece I’ve seen from Fox in the entire election cycle. Maybe they’ve finally noticed that pro-life Christians are tuning out.
The idea that Washington state’s party insiders had pulled something crooked never crossed my mind last night, but it was pounding in my head when I woke up today. If it’s true, then may God expose them, in Jesus’ name.
This definitely damages the credibility of the Associated Press. No honest journalist would call a race based on hearsay from a political activist, especially when that activist is claiming in the same breath that the votes haven’t been counted.
This smells very, very bad.
Help us, Jesus.
I am hoping that Huckabee comes out on top. Duncan Hunter was my first choice, but he did endorse Huckabee, and I’ll take Huckabee ANYDAY over John McPain.
I loath both McCain & Huckabee - but there is no excuse not to count all the votes in a close election. This was way too close to call with 13% uncounted.
It is also worth noting that BOTH of them combined didn’t have 50% of the vote. Says a lot about the Republican nominees!
This thread is probably worthy of a ping.
So what? Even if Huckabee won Washington State outright, he isn’t going to come up with enough delegates to take the nomination.
This is a set-up if I ever saw one and I wonder at the legality.
The “Reverend” Huckabee didn’t seem to mind when the WVA vote was tampered with.
“The chairman showed very bad judgment in stopping the voting last night when announcing John McCain had won, when there was less than a 200-vote margin between the two candidates,” Rollins told FOX News in an exclusive interview. “You never announce a vote, in my 40 years of politics, I have never know anybody to announce a vote count before the vote is counted.”
***This whole election cycle stinks. While they’re at it, the GOP needs to file an official complaint about how the media is affecting the election process with their biased poll results and resulting exclusion from debates based upon such biased polls.
On Poll Results and the End of Conservatism
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1951282/posts
Why does Huckabee want to challenge this vote? Huckabee was in the can for Rudy in Iowa and he was supposed to be running just to help McCain. Surely those from the camps, since retired, who said these things weren’t just pulling all this from their posteriors? I must admit to being a bit confused. Why would Perry call for Huckabee to drop out of the race? Surely Perry is in on the “Huckabee Hearts McCain Plan”? So Huckabee might be continuing his campaign to win the nomination? Will wonders never cease? :)
The Huckster is nothing but Jimmy Carter in a GOP suit. Nonetheless, votes should be fully counted. Duh.
Some dirty stuff coming from the state party.
It sounds like Huckabee is totally ignorant in how the Washington State Caucus works and he is making a big deal out of Nothing. No delegates have been awarded. This was just basically a tally of which way those who showed up at the caucus were leaning. The elected delegates by precinct will vote again at the district caucus in March which is were the delegates will be awarded. McCain and Huckabee have until then to sway the 12.3% uncommitted and the 16.7% who in protest voted for Mitt Romney. That’s 29% up for grabs not counting the 20.7 % Ron Paul people who will not be moved. By acting like a spoiled baby in contesting this count is not doing Huckabee any favors.
The real news to be gleaned here is that, in a two man race, their combined support didn’t top 50%.
Translation...
“The Huckster camp did not get a chance to rig this one, so it is all illegal and unfair.”