HeraldNet: Huckabee questions caucus results



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The Petri Dish

February 10, 2008

Huckabee questions caucus results

Posted at 12:01 am by Jerry Cornfield

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee was having a darn good day Saturday until Washington's caucuses.

He won the primary in Louisiana and caucus in Kansas.

In Washington, on Saturday night, with 87 percent of the vote in, he trailed Arizona Sen. John McCain. An 11:30 p.m. press release from state party chairman Luke Esser called it a win for McCain.

That didn't sit well with Huckabee's battle-tested campaign chairman Ed Rollins He posted a statement on the campaign
Web site blasting Esser and threatening to fight the outcome.

Rollins wrote: "The Huckabee campaign is deeply disturbed by the obvious irregularities in the Washington State Republican precinct caucuses. It is very unfortunate that the Washington State Party Chairman, Luke Esser, chose to call the race for John McCain after only 87 percent of the vote was counted."

At that time, McCain led Huckabee by two percent.

Sunday, Esser updated the results. . With 93 percent of ballots counted, McCain had 25.4 percent to Huckabee's 23.8 percent. Ron Paul is third with 20.7 percent.

“I felt confident when I made my announcement and I am even more confident after these latest results,” Esser told me Sunday.

He said ballot counting should wrap up Monday.

Rollins wrote that Huckabee's lawyers "are prepared to go to court, and we are also prepared to take our case all the way to the Republican National Convention in September."

"It was Mr. Esser's duty to oversee a fair vote-count process. Washington Republicans know, from bitter experience in the 2004 gubernatorial election, the terrible results that can come from bad ballot-counting," Rollins said,

Esser said he'd have been happy to call it for Huckabee. "The numbers are what they are," he said.

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