Local News

Campaign 2012 through the eyes of UW faculty and students

SEATTLE — The Washington GOP headquarters, home to the press room for the Washington caucuses, is sequestered away in a bare office space just outside of downtown Bellevue.

Results from counties all over the state are trickling in, with updates every 30-45 minutes from Washington GOP Chairman Kirby Wilbur. As the county vote map fills in with results from Adams to Yakima, the Washington caucus process seems to have avoided most of the pitfalls of previous states’ caucus process.

Unfortunately for the WA GOP, everything has not gone exactly as according to plan. The biggest snafu of the day unfolded in Kennewick. This morning hundreds of caucus goers were turned away once the facility reached maximum capacity. Kennewick is the largest city in Benton County, and the final tally of votes from the county are as follows: Romney: 728, Santorum: 418, Paul: 308, and Gingrich: 200. Here Wilbur responds to questions about Kennewick:

Voters, news media, and probably some of the candidates themselves are now wondering: what could have been?

About the author: Lindsey Meeks is a Doctoral Candidate in the Department of Communication at the University of Washington. Her research focuses on gender, political communication, and news coverage. Prior to returning to graduate school, Lindsey worked in PR and marketing in Austin, TX.

Phone: Phone: n/a | Twitter: @L_Meeks | Email: meekslm@uw.edu