Huckabee’s Night
Mike Huckabee surprised a lot of people, including me. The polls showed him declining in the south, with either McCain or Romney taking those states from him. Instead he won Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, and also West Virginia (full results here). He came within a few thousand votes of taking Missouri, and was a close second in Oklahoma.
Sadly, McCain won almost all the delegates in California, took all of Missouri’s winner-take-all count, and added other populous states to his delegate totals. Mathematically, it’s almost impossible for either Huckabee or Romney to win now [HT: Racefor2008]. Huckabee’s best chance is for the party to rally around him instead of Romney as the conservative alternative to McCain. And in truth, Huckabee is more viable than Romney at this point, with Romney’s failure to win in the south and Romney’s failure to win primaries.
I’m suspecting a McCain-Huckabee ticket will eventually emerge. That might be enough to rally all wings of the party around the nominatee. Regardless, Huckabee’s message is getting out and that’s a good thing. Servant leadership, the FAIR tax, standing up against corporate greed — these and other planks of his message are very important for the Republican establishment to hear. I hope the Republican party changes for the better as a result of this election cycle.
My Night
Now Huckabee had a great night, and I had an interesting one. I went to my first caucus and discovered firsthand how important one voice can be.
First of all, I saw firsthand how incredible the voter turnout was. At my caucusing center, we had 3 times the number they expected, and probably more. Still, my precinct and ward (St Paul, Precinct 3, ward 6) only had 5 people attending. I live in St. Paul, in a largely democratic area. At the caucusing center, though, there was at least 100-150 people.
A local Christian high school was volunteering, and had their students read off letters from the candidates. But when it came time for Huckabee’s letter, there wasn’t one. Apparently the other candidates had just emailed letters in, and Huckabee’s campaign didn’t. But because I was there, with the letter in my hand, I was able to read it in front of everyone in my half of the center (we had to split into 2 rooms).
It was rewarding to be able to ensure Huckabee’s message was heard, and I was excited to hear Huckabee do quite well in our room. There was no clear leader, but it seemed McCain and Huckabee did best, followed by Romney and Paul.
I am now one of the delegates going to our house district convention (HD66A), and I and my fellow delegate from my particular precinct/ward will both be casting votes for Huckabee.
I thought the caucus system was great, and it gives people an opportunity to be involved. I am now the chair for our small little precinct, and was able to get a resolution passed for our state party platform to consider needed judicial reform.
I had a fun night, even though it was my daughter’s 2nd birthday, and I rushed home after the caucus to finish the celebration with birthday cake. I encourage everyone to keep supporting Huckabee, and in the process to learn more about how to be involved in local politics. We have a right and responsibility to be involved. And one person can make a difference.
This is much different than the primary voting system we have in Florida, and definitely more involved– which is something more interesting than a primary vote system. I’m also ‘involved’ in the elections process, but I work as a poll worker in my precinct. I am the clerk, which is the person responsible for the precinct. There is a lot of work involved, as we use a paper ballot system that is optically scanned. Voters fill in a bubble with their choice, then they feed the ballot into an optical scanner called the tabulator. Since Florida is a ‘closed primary’ state, only registered Republicans can vote a Republican ballot, and likewise the Democrats vote a Democratic ballot. The largest complaint with voters were those who are registered either independent or with a third party; they were not allowed to vote in either primary.
Good to hear that Huckabee won some southern states, but it’s unlikely that Huckabee will get the delegates necessary for the nomination. I strongly prefer Romney over McCain (I’d rather vote for Mickey Mouse than McCain) if it were down to just those two. Right now, I believe it’s best that either Romney or Huckabee bow out now so as to frustrate the McCain campaign, which is now becoming a juggernaut in the race for the nomination. Unfortunately, the conservative talk show hosts I listen to (Beck and Limbaugh) both dislike Huckabee, even with Beck getting emotionally frustrated that Huckabee won’t bow out to give Romney some strength.
I agree it is unlikely, but some of the caucuses might still be moved toward Huckabee in the state level-conventions. And Romney could always bow out!
Bob,
It appears that Romney just bowed out of the race. This is certainly good news for Huckabee, as he can now be the only other viable alternative to McCain. I wonder if some of the delegates pledged to Romney (and others who bowed out) will now move to Huckabee? Wow, this is getting weirder all the time. I think you will now see some conservative galvinization from now until the convention, and toward Huckabee as he is the only candidate still in the race that is sympathetic to a broad base of Republican conservatives. Go Huck!
Larry,
I hope you’re right!