Mike Huckabee

SPOKANE - Jim Camden at the Spokesman-Review has a detailed recap of the nuts and bolts of Friday's convention action. He reports that the final delegate count to the Republican National Convention is 33 for presumptive nominee Arizona Sen. John McCain, 4 for Texas Rep. Ron Paul, and 3 for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

McCain won Washington's presidential caucus, where half of the state's delegates were awarded, on February 9 with 25 percent of the vote compared to 23 for Huckabee, 22 for Paul and 16 for former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. 14 percent were uncommitted. He also won the primary with 50 percent of the vote.

Now that state results have been certified, the Spokesman Review is reporting that state GOP chairman Luke Esser estimates that the state Republican primary delegate distribution breaks down to John McCain winning seven of ten popular vote delegates to Mike Huckabee's three, combined with McCain's probable delegate victory in each of the nine congressional districts.

Tacoma, WA -

As of 1:36 AM this morning a total of 961,736 ballots have been cast, 518,753 for the Democratic Party and 382,501 for Republicans, with an estimated 302,667 remaining to be counted.  read more »

As Mike Hucakbee struggles to remain relevant in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, GOP State Chairman Luke Esser continues to be on the hot seat. Huckabee has been critical of Esser’s decision to leave about 13% of the GOP primary vote uncounted – a move that assured John McCain of a victory in the Washington caucuses. There is no evidence that a complete count would have changed the results – Esser is viewed as a fair kind of guy and local insiders don’t think he had any intention of playing games. But still, this isn’t the kind of national press Esser wants for Washington.

State Republican Party Chair Luke Esser, under fire over the weekend by some supporters for his Saturday evening call of the state caucus for John McCain, released a letter today addressing the situation.

The Associated Press is reporting that Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is calling for a statewide recount and retraction of the GOP's statement declaring McCain the winner.

"It's a major exercise, but Luke Esser owes the people of Washington nothing less," Huckabee adviser Jim Pinkerton said today.  read more »

Presidential John McCain said Monday that he didn’t have problem with rival Mike Huckabee challenging the results of the Washington Republican caucus, the New York Times reports.  read more »

In an interview on CNN this morning, Governor Mike Huckabee gave a stinging take on the WA GOP caucus call for John McCain. TPM has posted video of the piece, where Huckabee compares the early declaration by Luke Esser to Soviet-era politics. More below the fold.

Tacoma, WA -  read more »

On the trail today, Mike Huckabee says he’s not ready to concede defeat in the Washington Republican Caucus. The latest numbers show John McCain leading Huckabee, 25.5% to 23.7%, with Ron Paul running a relatively close third at 20.6%. Huckabee told NBC’s Tim Russert that he’s looking at a possible legal challenge since Republicans stopped counting at 87.2% of the precincts reporting.