Controversy: McCain Helped Huckabee Win West Virginia

In the first round of voting, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney led the caucus. However, Huckabee pulled ahead with 51.5 per cent to Romney’s 47.4 because John McCain’s delegates defected and voted for the former governor of Arkansas. The convention went into a second round because no candidate won a clear majority the first time. Ron Paul took 10 per cent of the delegates. So, in the second round he was excluded and results were obtained. However, this is not how Huckabee won. McCain’s delegates told FOX News that they were told by the Arizona senator’s campaign to vote for Huckabee in order to stop Romney from winning. West Virginia is a winner-take-all state, meaning McCain did not want his top rival to win and gain precious momentum. The instruction to support Huckabee apparently came from former Louisiana Governor Buddy Roemer, who approached the delegates and told them that McCain had advised them all to support Huckabee to stop Romney. This story certainly adds to the argument Romney made before suspending his candidacy that Huckabee was taking supporters from him. In essence, a vote for Huckabee was a vote for McCain. However, Huckabee has denied this claim. After the West Virginia caucus, Romney’s campaign manager blasted McCain, saying: “Unfortunately, this is what Senator McCain’s inside Washington ways look like: he cut a backroom deal with the tax-and-spend candidate he thought could best stop Governor Romney’s campaign of conservative change.” McCain and Huckabee, of course, deny any wrongdoing. However, this comes extremely close to vote-rigging, something all free and Western nations frown upon in other struggling countries. Elections are often declared invalid for such behavior. Electoral fraud has no place in this country. The West Virginia convention has had other critics. Some Republicans claim the process for selecting delegates excluded too many of the 345,000 registered Republican voters.