The Other McCain

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Iowa Republican Party Finally Admits That Rick Santorum Won Jan. 3 Caucuses

Posted on | January 21, 2012 | 20 Comments

CHARLESTON, S.C.
Few things in this long and frequently shabby campaign season have been more shabby than the Iowa GOP’s mishandling of the results of their first-in-the-nation caucuses. The state party mistakenly named Mitt Romney the winner on Jan. 3 and, when the final certified tally this week showed that Rick Santorum actually won, Iowa GOP chairman Matt Strawn refused to acknowledge Santorum’s victory, going on Fox News to claim the result was “inconclusive.”

Finally, late Friday night — after it was too late to make news in Saturday’s newspapers — the Iowa GOP released a brief e-mail statement affirming Santorum’s win. The long delay in this acknowledgement, in combination with the gross irregularities involved in the mistaken count on caucus night and Strawn’s subsequent attempt to discount Santorum’s win, have angered many Republicans in Iowa who feel that the state party leadership has embarrassed them.

Politico has more. There is a Memeorandum thread.

 

Category: Election 2012, Iowa, Rick Santorum

Comments

20 Responses to “Iowa Republican Party Finally Admits That Rick Santorum Won Jan. 3 Caucuses”

  1. ThePaganTemple
    January 21st, 2012 @ 12:16 pm

    Eight precincts lost their official vote tallies. Six of those precincts went for Santorum, two of them went for Paul. This is according to Larry Sabato, who told me this directly over Twitter, for no other reason than I just happened to catch him and ask him at just the right time. I don’t know how well-known this is. I do know I haven’t seen it mentioned anywhere else. But I have no doubt its the truth, and it means that Santorum’s legitimate vote margin of victory should be much higher than what it is.

    Think about that. Eight damn precincts, precincts which were “lost” (ahem) and which went to Romney’s two closest competitors.

    This is why I will find it extremely difficult to support Romney if he gets the nomination. It’s also why I don’t give a big rats ass about what Will Folks says about Nikki Haley.

    All of these people can get bent. They’re all scum, and they know it.

  2. Finally! Iowa GOP Declares Rick Santorum the Winner of Iowa Caucuses | The Lonely Conservative
    January 21st, 2012 @ 12:36 pm

    […] and the State Central Committee declared Sen. Rick Santorum the winner of the 2012 Iowa Caucus.The Other McCain notes that the email was sent out too late for the announcement to make it into the morning […]

  3. smitty
    January 21st, 2012 @ 1:25 pm

    You know the Dems are laughing hysterically at the vote fraud. How do you ‘lose’ precinct totals like that, exactly?

  4. Edward
    January 21st, 2012 @ 2:10 pm

    Because the fix is in obviously.

    Mitt is the establishment’s choice

  5. Bob Belvedere
    January 21st, 2012 @ 2:33 pm

    And the Dems, in this case, deserve to have a good laugh at our expense.

    Just another example of how pathetic the GOP has become.

    Get ready for OPEATION WHIG on 07 November.

  6. Michael Swartz
    January 21st, 2012 @ 2:35 pm

    While I’m not a Santorum supporter in particular – nor am I a big Romney fan – there are two parts of this which anger me most.

    First and foremost, now the Democrats have a well-documented case where they can say, “See! Everyone thinks we’re the only ones who are suspected of voter fraud, but they do it too!” Absolutely stupid, boneheaded move on the part of these precincts.

    Secondly, this calls once again into question why Iowa, which is doing this essentially on the honor system and without a great deal of safeguards – witness the anecdotal reports of busloads of Chicago voters going to support Obama in 2008 – should go first in the process.

    Personally I think it’s time for the GOP to take a hard look at regional primaries, perhaps six done over a six-week period in the spring. Shorten the campaign season and allow each major media outlet one debate each.

  7. AngelaTC
    January 21st, 2012 @ 2:57 pm

    I’m really amazed that the party is so complacent about this, because it should make every single Republican voter irate. The GOP should take away Iowa’s  “first in the nation” status for 8 years – one for each lost precinct.  This is a huge embarrassment, and really puts the integrity of the whole process in doubt.  

    Thanks heavens for the Ron Paul supporter who exposed this. Now let’s see what the party is going to do to fix it, because so far they’ve only made excuses about why it happened.

  8. AngelaTC
    January 21st, 2012 @ 3:00 pm

    Well, I didn’t expect it to get much press, but before the caucus, the Head of the Iowa GOP said he wasn’t going to allow Ron Paul to win Iowa.  Turned out that wasn’t an issue, but now we can see how that could have worked.

  9. ThePaganTemple
    January 21st, 2012 @ 3:22 pm

    I say make Kentucky the first in the nation caucus state. It’s far closer to the pulse of the nation than Iowa could ever hope to be. Its right at the juncture of the south and the midwest with cultural ties to north and south. It has a strong religious tradition and heritage, but not overwhelmingly so. It has a strong industrial manufacturing sector (Toyota has a major factory here, for example) and is also a strongly agricultural state, in addition to being a state with a heavy emphasis on tourism. It’s rural, yet has largely urban areas as well. It’s minority population is much closer to the national average than is Iowa. Politically, while a Democrat state, it is by and large culturally conservative, yet has elements of progressive ideals.

    It would be perfect as the first in the nation caucus state, and it would be the easiest for candidates to navigate, as it is a much smaller state than Iowa in terms of area. Iowa is something like the 25th largest state, Kentucky is something like 37th largest. Yet their populations are I think fairly close. And Kentucky has a well-maintained interstate system. Santorum could have visited all of Ky counties in probably half the time it took him to travel back and forth through Iowa. The weather is generally a hell of a lot better as well, though lately we do tend to have rainy winters, unfortunately.

  10. ThePaganTemple
    January 21st, 2012 @ 3:24 pm

    He wouldn’t have won, but who knows, he might have come in second ahead of Romney, or at least a lot closer third right behind Romney. Everybody should be pissed off about this, regardless of who they support.

  11. Charles
    January 21st, 2012 @ 3:47 pm

    The Iowa result was essentially a tie. The fact is Santorum couldn’t manage to spin that as we’ve battled frontrunner Romney to a historic tie and won’t know the winner until the precincts are canvassed. Gingrich would have gotten more mileage out of Iowa, you can be sure of that.

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  13. Rich Vail
    January 21st, 2012 @ 4:09 pm

    It’s called voter fraud…and  the GOP “elites” both in DC and in the various states want Romney…but the base doesn’t.  So they dragged their feet in reporting “official” tallies because those tallies went against the official narrative of “Romney won.” 

  14. DaveO
    January 21st, 2012 @ 4:41 pm

    Screw Iowa.

    Every state should have its Primary on the same day.

    Never count of folks entirely dependent on government corn and welfare subsidies to select a winner.

  15. Blue Hen
    January 21st, 2012 @ 4:53 pm

    They already had one. The Delaware Republican party tried to keep O’Donnell out of the primary. At the end, they sued her (which was dismissed as being groundless) and badmouthed her after she won. I can’t wait to her what crap they’ll come up with this year.

  16. Anonymous
    January 21st, 2012 @ 5:38 pm

    Unless they also look at closed primaries, it won’t matter much.

  17. ThePaganTemple
    January 21st, 2012 @ 5:52 pm

    “The Iowa result was essentially a tie” according to the official vote tally. If those lost eight precincts had been included, Santorum would have been the clear victor. There’s no way to “spin” that any other way.

  18. ThePaganTemple
    January 21st, 2012 @ 5:54 pm

    O’Donnell? Oh yeah, you mean that witch that endorsed Romney. That reminds me, I’ve been meaning to head up to Delaware for a coven meeting with her. I’m thinking maybe the next full moon.

  19. Tennwriter
    January 22nd, 2012 @ 12:25 pm

    But Gingrich lost Iowa, Charles. Big Time.

    Kentucky is not a bad idea, but absolutely, close the primaries.

    And this dirty dealing should taint Romney ‘the Cheater’.

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