Republican Primary

Here is our tracker for tonight:

STATE Democratic Leader Republican Leader Reporting Hawaii Democratic Obama, Barack N/A 100% Wisconsin Obama, Barack McCain, John 99% jamie

Powered by IntoxiNation and Crooks and Liars UPDATED AT:Thu Aug 28, 2008 at 09:20 am EST

Democratic delegates up for grab:

WI - 64

HI - 17

If you want to keep up on the Washington primaries,  you can do so here. This race is binding for the Republicans only.

UPDATE 9:00

MSNBC And CNN calls Wi. for McCain.

UPDATE 9:15

MSNBC Calls Wi. For Obama

No big surprise there. This should put McCain past the threshold if all delegates follow along.

There is a major fight brewing in Washington state over the called race for McCain. I can't remember a time when they stopped counting votes because a party chair figured out the winner, but that appears to be what's happening:

Esser said he declared McCain the winner after calculating what Huckabee would have to win in the remaining precincts in order to take the lead. And even with being generous with a forecast of Huckabee votes, and purposefully assuming McCain's support dropped significantly in the late counts, McCain still looked like the winner.

Let's take a look at those numbers. 87% of the precincts were counted, which yielded a total of 13,475 votes. Doing the math that gives an estimated 1,752 votes uncounted.

Now let's look at the breakdown. McCain has 3,468 and Huckabee has 3,226, for a net difference of 242 votes. Looking at those numbers, what if Huckabee took the remaining precincts by 40% to McCain's 25%? That would give Huckabee the lead by 20 votes, and considering the way Saturday went, it's not a long shot.

There's more to it than just the numbers though. We also have to look at exactly what is happening. The state party chair, Luke Esser, is basically telling those remaining 13% of voters that they don't count. That is an insult to the Republican voters of Washington. I don't know the break down of the remaining precincts, but I would love to get some idea of how these areas break down by religion, race, political ideology, etc.

Something weird is going on in Washington and I am glad Huckabee has decided to fight it. The voters of Washington state deserve a chance to make sure their votes are counted, and at least Huckabee is standing up for that basic principal of democracy.

Good for him:

Mike Huckabee is challenging the results of the Washington state Republican caucuses, his campaign announced Sunday, after accusing the state party chairman of calling the election for John McCain before all the votes were counted.

The campaign will be pursuing a full investigation, including sending in lawyers to join those already on the scene in the state, officials told FOX News.

Washington State Republican Party Chairman Luke Esser announced late Saturday that McCain had won the 2008 Republican caucuses in the state with 87.2 percent of precincts reporting. McCain had 25.5 percent over Huckabee's 23.7 percent in that race.

I pointed this out earlier - the state leader of the GOP called the race for McCain. That was with only 87% of the votes in and McCain ahead by only 240 votes. Something sounds really fishy here and the voters of Washington deserve to find out if their vote counted or if some political hack is trying to screw over democracy.

The declaration was by the state's party chairman. There are still only 87% of the votes counted and McCain is leading by only 242 votes.

Washington Caucuses-President
Democratic REPORTING: 96% Candidate Votes % D Obama, Barack 21,629 68% 38 Clinton, Hillary 9,992 31% 19 Uncommitted, 363 1% 0 TOTAL VOTES 31,984	Republican REPORTING: 87% Candidate Votes % D McCain, John 3,468 26% 0 Huckabee, Mike 3,226 24% 0 Paul, Ron 2,799 21% 0 Romney, Mitt 2,253 16% 0 Uncommitted, 1,729 13% 0 TOTAL VOTES 13,475
Powered by IntoxiNation and Crooks and Liars UPDATED: Sun Feb 10, 2008 at 08:20 am EST

Not so much, but it sounds like he is leaning that way.

So I hear this statement read on MSNBC and can't stop thinking "WTF"?

So it's McCain and some "backroom D.C. deal" that cost Romney WV? Talk about a reach.

I didn't even know they were running yet. I'll put the election tracker up now. For those counting delegates, WV has 18.

Mitt Romney has won the Maine Primary (yeah I totally forgot it was going on)

It kind of sounds like Mitt is starting to give up:

In a major boost for John McCain, Republican presidential rival Mitt Romney signaled Wednesday he's not ready to commit to a costly campaign in the states holding primaries and caucuses next week.

Several officials said that on the heels of a defeat in Tuesday's Florida primary, Romney's campaign was not attempting to purchase television advertising time in any of the states on the Super Tuesday calendar.

Now would this be a boost to McCain or a boost to Huckabee? A lot of pundits think that McCain is doing so well because the conservatives are splitting between Romney and Huckabee. This could actually help Huckabee more than McCain if that's the case.

I just can't stomach listening to these king of idiots any more. I swear I would rather listen to Bush speak. At least he makes some mistakes that are funny.

Florida Primary-President
Democratic REPORTING: 99% Candidate Votes % Clinton, Hillary 857,208 50% Obama, Barack 569,041 33% Edwards, John 248,604 14% Kucinich, Dennis 9,537 1%	Republican REPORTING: 99% Candidate Votes % McCain, John 693,508 36% Romney, Mitt 598,188 31% Giuliani, Rudy 281,781 15% Huckabee, Mike 259,735 14% Paul, Ron 62,063 3% Thompson, Fred 22,288 1% Hunter, Duncan 2,787 0%
UPDATED: Mon Feb 4, 2008 at 08:50 am EST

9:12 -
MSNBC is reporting that Giuliani may drop out tomorrow and endorse McCain. That should be interesting.

9:20 -
MSNBC and CNN call it for McCain. Giuliani giving his "damn I lost" speech now.

9:25 -
FOX calls it for McCain

9:28 -
AP calls it for McCain

10:00 -
Now being reported that Giuliani will go to California tomorrow and drop out at the Reagan Library. This according to a senior Giuliani campaign official.

The rumor throughout the pundit world is that Rudy could be dropping out tomorrow if he doesn't do well in Florida today. It will be interesting to see what happens. I'll have the election tracker up a little later.

Also

There are reports that a large number of Democrats are even heading to the polls, despite Florida being stripped of delegates. It will be interesting to see those results also.

But you won't hear the media talking about it. Instead they focus on the Democrats going negative. Steve Benen has all the details of how McCain is attacking Romney now.

The shorter version. Charlie Crist was originally vowing support to Rudy in the fall and then made the surprise announcement last night that he was endorsing McCain. This news has rattled the cages in the Rudy camp.:

The news is a definitive blow to Giuliani, and a sign of his fading prospects in the Sunshine State. Giuliani has gone out of his way on numerous occasions to praise Crist, and each time suggested he would be a viable vice presidential candidate.

It would probably be an appropriate time to mention an old proverb of "putting all your eggs in one basket", but I doubt that would have any effect on Rudy. We already knew he didn't listen to sound recommendations of other.