Luke Esser

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Luke Esser is the chairman of the Washington State Republican Party. He was elected on January 27, 2007, when he defeated incumbent chairman Diane Tebelius. Esser is a former senator in the Washington State Senate, representing the 48th Legislative District. He served as the minority floor leader for the Republican Party. He was defeated for reelection in 2006 by Democratic challenger and former Republican House seatmate Rodney Tom. Previously, in the 2004 primary he was one of four Republicans vying for the nomination for the Eighth Congressional District of Washington. He was defeated by Dave Reichert, who went on to win the general election.

For much of the 1990's, Esser was a contributing writer to Fantasy Football Index, the nation's oldest and largest circulating Fantasy Football publication.

Esser lives in East Bellevue, Washington and attends St. Louise Parish Catholic Church.

[edit] 2008 Caucuses

Esser called the Washington State Republican Caucus for John McCain, on February 9, 2008, after 87% of the vote had been counted, and 200 votes separated John McCain from Mike Huckabee^[1]. Huckabee had been leading early on as the votes were counted, but after McCain took the lead, Esser published a press release declaring McCain the apparent victor^[2].

After more results were counted, McCain maintained his lead in the state.[1]

Ed Rollins, Huckabee campaign chairman, directly challenged Esser’s move, saying the count was incomplete because the other 12.8 percent of precincts could tip the scales since McCain was beating Huckabee by only a couple hundred votes. “The chairman showed very bad judgment in stopping the voting last night when announcing John McCain had won, when there was less than a 200-vote margin between the two candidates,” Rollins told FOX News in an exclusive interview.

In the days that followed, local conservative blogger Eric Earling penned an article in The American Spectator magazine, chronicling the events, and writing in part, "the episode has revealed more about Huckabee and his Ed Rollins-led campaign than anything else."^[3] Citing "slash and burn rhetoric" from the Huckabee campaign, the blogger revealed that similar tactics had been employed for years by Rollins, former boxer and author of Bare Knucles and Back Rooms.