John McCain has apparently won the Washington Republican caucuses tonight, a narrow victory over Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul. In fact, the most notable element of the race is that Ron Paul picked up about 22% for a close third place finish. This is one of his campaign’s strongest showings to date, and it comes on a day when Representative Paul announced he was scaling back his Presidential campaign to focus on running for re-election to Congress.
The win is also somewhat important for McCain as it blunts some of Mike Huckabee’s momentum from his victories in Kansas and Louisiana. Going forward, McCain just needs to win Maryland and the District of Columbia on Tuesday to keep a good head of steam going. If he can complete the sweep and win Virginia as well, Mike Huckabee might be out of the race by the end of the week.
Either way, John McCain is still virtually guaranteed the Republican nomination. And every vote for Mike Huckabee helps bolster his stature as a potential Vice-Presidential candidate.
February 10th, 2008 at 7:56 am
I think you are incorrect about McCain definitely winning Washington. The news reports I have read say that the vote count was suspended for the night and will resume on Sunday. It might turn out in the end that McCain does win. But for now, the vote count is incomplete. So the 2% lead that McCain held over Huckabee when vote counting was suspended late Saturday night only reflects a partial tally of all the votes cast. Maybe McCain will end up on top after it’s all said and done, but you’ve called it too soon to be sure.
February 10th, 2008 at 8:46 am
I think you will find that Ron Paul comes in first in delegates in Washington, and he already got the most delegate votes in the Louisiana Caucus.
February 10th, 2008 at 10:39 am
It’s funny, I became a RonPaul Delegate today, in Skagit Valley Washington, At the BigLake School the vote went like this,2for Paul 2 huckerbee, 1 for mitt, and alternate for Paul. McShame 0 loser!
February 10th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
I too am from Washington State. The results the media posts are useless because they only represent the presidential preference of caucus goers. In many precincts although Ron Paul may not have had a majority of the voters only Ron Paul candidates stepped forward to be delegates to the county convention. We will make a difference yet.
February 10th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Votes for Huckabee outside the Bible Belt clearly show a anti-McCain vote. If the Huckster can eek out enough money to run his campaign to the end, there’s more evidence that a brokered convention is the works.
February 10th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
I don’t know ANYONE in WA state who is voting for McCain — where are these people???? I have lived in WA all my life! Amongst the 500 people I know, none of them know anyone voting for McCain either. Is this a FIXED election or what?
February 10th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
I was at the precinct caucus. All the Ron Paul delegate wannabes were told (by the efficient internet grapevine) to put “uncommitted” on the forms. Asking around though, we had four votes for RP and one vote for Mitt in my precinct and a willingness to consider the dem ticket if McCain is the republican nominee.
February 10th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
If the emphasis on winning is how many delegates one receives, then it is Paul who is the winner, NOT McCain or Huckabee. Like Clinton in Michigan, what’s being released to the public is nothing more than a beauty contest.
February 10th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
Several of the Ron Paul supporters in our part of Washington listed for uncommitted. The three delegates from my precinct are all representing Ron Paul, though only one of us officially listed RP on the caucus sign in sheet.
February 10th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
Ron paul won in Clark County, Wa with a good margin. And Ron Paul took second in Nevada. So “This is one of his campaign’s strongest showings to date” is not true.
February 10th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
McCain’s run for the Republican nomination is far from over. To see one example of how Machiavellian it is already, follow the link and find evidence of fraud by the Editorial Board of the the New York Times.
February 11th, 2008 at 12:06 am
Huckabee is questioning the count, as only 87% of the votes have been counted at this point with a few hundred vote margin. This is too close to call. Of course, it is being reported that McCain is the winner, but until 100% have been counted, that is a false assumption in such a close contest.
February 11th, 2008 at 1:50 am
The media is full of it! Ron Paul has more than twice the number of delegates as the other candidates in WA state. A case in point, I was in a sea of Hucabee supporters and convinced them to give me the delegate nomination for our precinct. I was the only Ron Paul supporter out of the group but I was the most conservative as well. I knew my stuff, I was passionate about the message and low and behold, it worked! They told me they trusted my vote. The problem is that too many people are getting their “news” from the mainstream media. They are being disinformed and once they hear the truth, they can see no other option but to vote for Dr. Paul. Every RP supporter at my caucus came out a delegate. I don’t see the other candidates bringing such passionate supporters.
February 12th, 2008 at 5:52 am
It warms my heart to see the message spreading even without the media attention. You know the people are ready for it.They just haven’t heard it.And I’d like to steal all those stupid Obama HOPE signs and use them for the Paul campaign.
February 12th, 2008 at 11:39 pm
>>>John McCain has apparently won the Washington
>>>Republican caucuses tonight, a narrow victory
>>>over Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul.
I only learned about the caucus process a few months ago (yes, I won a delegate slot for Ron Paul in a western caucus state).
The preference polls that are released to the media is just a circus show without meaning - they are mostly fraud (cardboard box stuffing, all counted by one person, no oversight) and non-binding.
The meaningful outcome of caucus is WHO IS ELECTED AS DELEGATES. Learn about the caucus delegates and you will understand it is IMPOSSIBLE to get an accurate count to determine who “won”.
Where I live, those who got delegate slots have self-identified. I don’t have numbers for the largest county in the state, but I do have good numbers for the 2nd and 3rd largest counties, and the delegates support Ron Paul.
Paul is 1st in delegate count in Louisiana, 2nd in Nevada and 1st if Romney leaves, probably 1st in Washington state and a few others like Minnesota. The groundwork is being constructed for Ron Paul to raise an inclusive tent at the national GOP convention this summer.