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Thousands crowd into Washington state’s Republican caucuses

By Michelle Dupler and David Lightman, McClatchy Newspapers –

KENNEWICK, Wash. — Thousands of Republican voters crowded into local caucuses Saturday in Washington state to pick a GOP presidential nominee in a race whose outcome is tough to predict — and will be watched closely as a preview of next week’s Super Tuesday.

All four contenders visited Washington in the last two weeks, hoping the caucuses would give them an important jolt of momentum three days before 10 states, including neighboring Idaho, vote on the biggest primary and caucus day of the year.

“We can put this race on a whole other plane if Washington speaks conservatively on Saturday,” Rick Santorum, former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, told a Pasco rally Thursday.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney advised rally-goers in Bellevue Friday how to get nuts-and-bolts information about how to caucus. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, the only candidate airing ads in the state, was to stay in Washington Saturday for last-minute campaigning.

They’re well aware the results will dominate political talk on Sunday, 48 hours before crucial primaries in Ohio, Tennessee, Georgia, Oklahoma and elsewhere.

The Washington winner will undoubtedly trumpet support from Republicans in the West’s second-largest state as proof of his viability, even though less than 2 percent of the state’s 3.7 million voters were expected to turn out.

But in a year when Republicans have valued electability highly, a Washington victory could be a factor in their decision, and voters energized by the candidates’ pleas swarmed to the caucuses Saturday.

Participants at the pooled Benton County Republican caucuses in Kennewick Saturday reported that hundreds, maybe more, were turned away by event organizers after rooms at the Three Rivers Convention Center reached capacity.

Some potential caucus voters said they arrived at 9 a.m., an hour before the caucuses began, to find the large hallways at the convention center packed to the rafters and were told no more people could enter the caucus rooms.

Paul addressed about 750 people Friday night in Seattle, offering his message of dramatically reducing the size of government, ending the Federal Reserve System and curbing U.S. military involvement in foreign countries.

Paul is thought to have strong support in Washington state, where his libertarian message could play well. Saturday, he greeted voters in Puyallup, and intended to await results in Seattle later in the day.

The caucus results are nonbinding, but start the process of selecting the state’s 43 delegates to the Republican National Convention in August. But because of the crowds, the results could trigger controversy.

Ray Swenson, a Richland lawyer, criticized local GOP officials for poor organization and said the results today should be invalidated.

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