And Esser's Patron is ...? (Wait for it)
Jeff Alworth
So why would Washington state GOP Chair Luke Esser want to hastily call the election for John McCain even before all the votes were in (backgrounder here)? We turn now to HorsesAss, which follows local politics (all emphasis theirs):
As anyone who has followed his storybook career knows, Esser has benefited from a long and cozy relationship with WA State Attorney General Rob McKenna, the two having worked closely together to climb the political ladder. Esser joined then King County Councilmember McKenna’s staff in 1996, and stayed on as a top aide even after Esser was elected first to the state house and then the state senate. Esser was paid for his help on McKenna’s successful 2004 campaign for Attorney General, and was rewarded with a plum assignment as “Outreach Director”, the perfect position in the AG’s office for a lawyer with very little legal experience. Then, after Esser lost his senate reelection bid in 2006, McKenna used his pull as the highest elected Republican in the state to help oust then WSRP Chair Diane Tebelius and replace her with his pal Esser, who proceeded to do political work on the public’s dime, while initially drawing pay checks from both the AGO and the state party. On resigning from the AG’s office under public pressure, Esser took pains to detail his close affection and ties to McKenna, writing in his resignation letter: “… Rest assured that I will always be available if I can ever be helpful to you.”
Well… considering Attorney General Rob McKenna is also Sen. John McCain’s Washington state campaign chair, it looks like Esser was awfully damn helpful to his patron Saturday night.
The hanky-panky was ham-handed and obvious and is now unraveling for Esser. Talking Points Memo continues to dog the story and has more there.
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7:36 a.m.
Feb 12, '08
Oh, this just gets better and better.
12:04 p.m.
Feb 12, '08
Can't you just picture see 'em in the smoke-filled room, plotting, planning, giggling like schoolgirls... It's like they think nobody will ever connect the dots. What a couple of schmucks. Does this violate any Federal election laws? Oh please tell me it does!
2:13 p.m.
Feb 12, '08
Jeff, Do you have a sense of the level of outrage Washington Republicans are feeling about this? I would think supporters of any candidate would be furious about this, as they should be. Are they? Or is it just the media & perhaps Huckabee's partisans who are calling foul instead all Republicans concerned about their voting rights getting trampled?
3:23 p.m.
Feb 12, '08
JV--no. I'm surprised I'm not hearing more about it in the news. I mean, this is seriously tin-pot democracy stuff. We used to joke about third world Democracies, but you see this and you just have to shake your head. I'd be mortified beyond belief if I were a Washington Republican. It's funny in a bleak way, but only because it's the GOP eating itself. It wasn't so funny four and eight years ago in Ohio and Florida.
6:26 p.m.
Feb 12, '08