TPM: A Little Weird (Washington Republican Race)

[Renew Deal]

As you know, John McCain lost two of the three contests yesterday. He was losing narrowly in Washington state and then pulled ahead by a narrow margin (less than two points) toward the end. But then with 87% of the returns counted, the Washington state GOP, which runs the caucuses stopped releasing results. That left us and a lot of other news organizations in a bit of a quandary last night since it looked like McCain was going to pull it off. But as late as 1:30 AM on the east coast promised new results kept failing to materialize.

Then over night the Washington state GOP put out a press release announcing McCain the winner based on the 87% returns. Now, I think it would be borderline for a media organization to declare one candidate a winner when the margin separating first and second was 1.8% with 13% of the results still uncounted. But for the officials holding the election to declare the result on that basis is simply bizarre. But that's what they did.

The release final results are next expected to be available until Monday.

--Josh Marshall

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/177811.php

Are the republicans stealing the election from Huckabee? It seems so.

[Mrs. Overall]

1. But Huckabee is not conceding and is now looking into the "legal issues":

In an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," Huckabee said he and his team are still analyzing the results of Washington's caucuses.

"We're looking at some legal issues. We're not ready to concede that one," Huckabee said, without going into specifics.

http://www.komotv.com/news/15440961.html

[Recursion]

2. Maybe cutting off Paul getting second place?

He was only three points behind Huckabee, at 21%. That's the sort of thing that scares the hell out of some establishment GOP types...

[Truth2Tell]

3. Yep, that's my guess too.

I suspect the 13% of missing results are from far eastern precincts that always take the longest to report. They are also the most kooky libertarianish. I bet a bunch of Paul precincts began to roll in and the Party pulled the plug.

[Renew Deal]

4. I think it has to do with preventing McCain from getting swept.

McCain was probably going to lose the day, and that would look very bad.

[Recursion]

5. But to Huck or Paul, I wonder?

Could you imagine if he actually took a state in the primaries? Total GOP meltdown.

[rug]

6. They're just practicing for the big one.

[Silent3]

7. Are there that many fundies in Washington?

That it could be even be a close race between McCain and Huckabee in a non-Bible Belt state surprises me. I'd be more suspicious of shenanigans if Huckabee won.