WASHINGTON STATE REPUBLICAN CAUCUS - LIVE thread

Find Your Caucus Location By Pressing Here ^ | 02/09/2008

[Checkers]

The Cauci don't begin until 1pm pacific time, but it's never too early to start a live thread.

[Tennessee Nana]

Washington State GOP Caucus
Candidate Votes %
John McCain 3,468 26
Mike Huckabee 3,226 24
Ron Paul 2,799 21
Mitt Romney 2,253 17
Other 1,729 13
Key: Winner
Precincts: 87% | Updated: 1:31 AM ET | Source: AP
More About This Race »

[Gondring]

Worst in what way?

[I.D.E.A]

McCain 3,468 26%
Huckabee 3,226 24%
Paul 2,799 21%
Romney 2,253 16%
Uncommit 1,729 13%

Real-time Race Results: Updated February 10, 2008 - 1:31 AM (all times Eastern Standard)
Precincts Reporting 87%

[Gondring]

If the party hadn't changed the rules and let McCain and the Huckster have two extra days to get delegates, Paul would have won Louisiana caucus, too.

"At the time of the original January 10 deadline, Ron Paul had the largest number of delegates pledged to him. The party then changed the rules to give other candidates until January 12 to file more delegates."

[LordBridey]

If Paul gets out, his delegates will go to Huckabee, because of Huckabee’s aim to abolish the IRS and McCain’s aim to keep troops in Iraq for 100 years. :o)

[Baumer]

At our caucus in North Central WA, you wrote down your presidential choice when you signed in. We had alot of debate but not about candidates. Almost two hours of discussion on what should be on the platform for the county convention. This platform will then help form the state platform. This was a fun process but was a little frustrating since many didn’t know how to follow Roberts Rules of Order which is how the meeting was run. Being in a very rural county, there were many there for Ron Paul as well as the Huckster. If Thompson had still been in the race though, I think most I talked with would have voted for him.

[jan in Colorado]

Yes, it is great that each State can do it their own way. But the Primary stinks. It certainly favors liberals rather than conservatives, and I think they should ALL be on the same day, so that the candidate isn't chosen before everyone gets a chance to vote!

Of course, I'm not running the country, YET, so what I think really doesn't matter, does it!!!
;o)

[Tennessee Nana]

BREAKING NEWS: State GOP chairman declares McCain winner in Washington, AP says

[jan in Colorado]

Interesting perspective, thanks for sharing that.

About your tagline...Is that true?
I thought WA was really liberal?

[jan in Colorado]

Hmmmm...well, two out of three ain’t bad!
Thanks for the news...NOW I can go to bed!

[Tramonto]

How can they call it when they are only 250 votes apart?

[Tennessee Nana]

I dont know

LOL

That was in the MSNBC site

Is it normal for the GOP State chair to call it ????

Hmmm just checked the banner isnt there anymore

[Tennessee Nana]

From Foxnews

Precincts Reportng: 87%
Republican Winner
John McCain - 25.74%

Republicans
Candidate # of votes % of total # of delegates
McCain 3,468 25.74% 0
Huckabee 3,226 23.94% 0
Paul 2,799 20.77% 0
Romney 2,253 16.72% 0

[Tramonto]

It still seems like it is close. I hope its a mistake.

[Tennessee Nana]

I think someone jumped the gun

I hope so

I wonder what the vote would have been in a regular primary ???

[Tramonto]

They are going to have a primary in about a week so we will find out. Its kinda goofy.

[CyberCowboy777]

Hello from Cowlitz County, we had record breaking numbers at our Precinct Caucus.

Cowlitz County Republican Party

Our Delegate Presidential Preference count:

(This is the indicated Presidential Preference of those elected as a Delegate to the County Convention)

Romney - 96 (32%)

Huckabee - 80 (26.6%)

Paul - 52 (17.3%)

McCain - 49 (16.3%)

Uncommitted - 23 (7.6%)

http://www.cowlitzrepublicans.com/caucus2008

[CharlesWayneCT]

Thanks for the updates. Romney did pretty well for a guy who isn’t in the race anymore.

[SW6906]

But sionnsar, what happened at our caucus is not what happened at other caucuses!! That is the point! The more I think about it, the more I come to the conclusion that ours was run incorrectly. Most of the people there had no idea what was supposed to take place, so they didn't speak up either. Good luck getting many of them to show up again as that was a boring waste of time (heck, the first 30 minutes was just sitting around doing NOTHING waiting for 1:30 to begin "voting"!!!). I could have just signed the sheet at the beginning and left and not wasted 90 minutes of my life.

I'm reading that about three different processes took place in the caucuses around the state:

--Ours merely voted for delegates who can then be for whomever they want. It was a process and then it was over.
--Some spent most of the time discussing the platform.
--Some discussed the candidates and then wrote down their preferences and elected delegates to carry their preference forward. This is what I thought was going to happen - that I would perhaps have an opportunity to talk someone out of voting for McCain and maybe convince someone to be a Romney or Huckabee delegate from our precinct. I never heard Romney's name mentioned once in that room because there was no discussion allowed!

I asked - twice - about process and one was explicitly about debate and discussion and I was told (in not so many words) now was not the time. I was told that the delegates could be for whomever they want, regardless of what the precinct members wished. That is how I came to the conclusion that if I didn't volunteer to be a delegate, my beliefs weren't going to be heard. My little "nay" to the "voting" for the Paul delegate wasn't even heard and didn't mean anything anyway.

So the answer is, unless I am willing and able to devote large amounts of time and money to become extremely active in the party to tilt against the windmills of the party elite to change the way they are doing this, then I just have to bend over and take it. I can't, so I'm through playing their game.

They wonder why people are cynical about politics......

[KansasGirl]

Okay, what’s the deal? Why didn’t WA finish counting the votes? Are they trying to get the fix in or what?