Huckabee Campaign Challenges Results of Washington Caucuses

(CBS)

From CBS News' Joy Lin:

RICHMOND, VA. -- All day, Mike Huckabee's campaign has been trying to learn about how the final 13 percent of the votes in the Washington state Republican caucuses would be counted. As of this afternoon, only 87 percent of the votes have been counted and CBS News has deemed the state too close to call.

Finally, Luke Esser, the chair of the state GOP party, returned the Huckabee campaign's call, saying the final results would be determined sometime within the week.

The only hitch? The state chairman had already declared John McCain the winner last night, with only a 242 vote lead. In a written statement last night, Esser said, "Congratulations to Sen. McCain for a hard-fought win, his second caucus victory in the 2008 presidential nomination process. And congratulations to Gov. Huckabee for his strong second-place finish."

Huckabee campaign lawyer Lauren Huckabee (daughter-in-law of the candidate), who is skeptical of the fairness, asked for a lawyer to monitor the resluts.

The state GOP denied the request and hung up on Lauren Huckabee, according to the campaign. Campaign adviser Ed Rollins will be sending lawyers to Olympia, scheduled to land this evening, to investigate the matter.

At a hastily arranged press conference in a hotel room, Rollins was steamed.

"You don't get to announce the votes until they are all counted. And obviously, by his attempts to project without any statistical data or even if he had statistical data, it's irrelevant: we're entitled to a fair, full count," Rollins said.

"Our lawyers attempted to contact him today, finally did so about ten minutes ago. He said, 'Well I don't know where the precincts, are, I just sort of did it. How dare Mike Huckabee challenge – he has to trust us. We're going to count the rest of the votes today in the office.'"

"We asked to have someone go in to the office with them and count the votes and he refused us. He said he would have to notify the other campaigns."

"I'm not accusing the McCain campaign of anything. I'm accusing the state party chairman of using very, very bad judgement. We are going to fully pursue this legally."

"When our lawyer asked them, again, 'will you say statistically, will you project, what were the precincts?', he said, 'well I don't know, I can't count that.' So, basically, he's making a guess [about the results]."

"I think it literally took away from our momentum…Going to the primaries here, everything is about momentum, so we are very disturbed by it."

[sushinoms]

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[mahoney511]

This is a Travesty. What Washington state is doing is illegal. We need to let our voice be heard.
Thank you CBS news for standing alone and not projecting MaCain the winner of such a tight race.

[marinepatriot]

I am sick and tired of all of the unethical things that have been done during this election. I am sick and tired of the Republican party leaders. Where are our officials on stepping forward and standing up for whats right?

Since when, can a candidate robo call states to announce that his competition had dropped out of the race? That was done by Romney over the 3 days preceding Super Tuesday. Here is fox news reporting on it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jk6IJS3QN
34

Since when does a republican chairman call the win when 87% have reported and the two candidates are a mere 200 votes a part?

WHAT IS HAPPENING TO OUR NATION!!!!!!!

WE ARE SICK AND TIRED OF THOSE IN POWER TAKING OUR RIGHTS AWAY!!!!

WE WANT TO BE AMERICANS LIVING IN A FREE COUNTRY!

GO OUT AND VOTE FOR HUCKABEE, THE RICH AND POWERFUL ARE TRYING TO STOP HIM FROM GETTING TO THE WHITE HOUSE.

WE WILL NOT ACCEPT THEIR EFFORTS!!!!!!

[seg910]

Actually, all three candidates ere embarassed.

What happened is that Romney got 16% of the total. Uncommitted got 13% of the total, which could have been a 29% total for Romney.

In Michigan, we had a large uncommitted total for Obama, who was not on our ballot. Neither was Edwards. Clinton, Kucinich, and one other Democrat were there. Obama and Edwards could have put their names on, and didn''t.

An analyst asked Wolf Blizter why the 29% lead in Washington of uncommitted was the biggest lead of the night. He didn''t answer. He put Ron Paul in there with others.

I don''t think it''s Guiliani in the West. Romney was predicted to win large there, as he had in most of the western states.

I think all of those votes were for him, and the delegates were confused on how to run it. Some put uncommitted down, as they thought he was off the ballot. Others had him as he just suspended.

How emabarrasing for everyone. They let the 29% of actual committed votes go unreported, and now they have two lawsuits. Huckabee, McCain and Paul could have gotten those votes in Washington.

THEY DID NOT! Interesting, to say the least.

[giantrobot2]

John McCain is a war hero, but he will not pass the health exam required to be the President.

John McCain would be the oldest president if elected in US history.

John McCain is not a true conservative. He is against the 1996 Federal Family act, human cloning and wants to keep the borders open.

Mike Huckabee was the first candidate in the Republican primary Dr. James Dobson ever endorsed. Huckabee is the true conservative candidate.

In 2006 the Republican''s got hammered and lost both the House and Senate because of the &quot;My way or the Highway&quot; stance on the Iraq war. How can John McCain win the general election with the same type of philosophy to stay there 100 years? He will absolutely lose in the general election.

If you are a Republican and you want to keep the Republican base leading, you must seriously considering voting for Mike Huckabee. He has the stamina, desire, intelligence, wit, charisma, experience and honesty to lead this nation at this point in our history.

Vote for Mike Huckabee!!

www.mikehuckabee.com

[tallguyinwa]

Luke Esser was on stage cheering at a McCain rally on Friday night. I think this is entirely inappropriate for the man that is supposed to be the referee in this contest.

Esser is the man on the right.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2004173350_mccain09m.html

[mrsmarrero]

The Washington State Election system does it again. Our reputation for integrity is at stake due to the numerous count discrepencies in our state over the last several years. I would think that with all of the scrutiny our voting system is under, Mr. Esser would have used better judgement, and declared the election too close to call until all votes are in. As a resident of Washington State, I am embarrassed by our apparent lack of respect for proper voting procedures. I attended a caucus yesterday, and my id was never even checked.

[Ruidu]

How funny is it watching all of the conservative elites race to %u201CMcCain-nedy%u201D for a seat at his Presidential table? First the GOP shoved liberal conservative H. Bush down our throats just for me to lose the White House. Then they shoved moderate constrictive W. Bush down our throats and he spent us into the poor house. Now they are shoving a liberal conservative again, John McCain, who will try and persuade the conservative base to fall in line for him for no other reason. What a Joke! The Republican Party will not receive another dime from me or my support. The conservative elites think their base is liberal like McCain.

The liberal elites and conservative elites could not care less what their base thinks!

[mamacon]

I''m a Huckabee supporter but I think the Ron Paul supporters should be up in arms about this as well as Ron Paul had a nice showing as well.

Just more of the same. The American people need to let the government, the media, the pundits, etc... that we will be heard.

[michaellitz2]

There has been lots of &quot;dirty play&quot; against Huckabee in this campaign - especially by the news media post South Carolina - &quot;it''s down to McCain and Romney&quot;, etc. Also by talk radio hosts. This move is just a little TOO obvious!!As I''ve said to Hannity, Rush and others I now say to Luke Esser - Play fair boys!!