If you're not familiar with Robert "The Traveller" Hill, let me give you a brief introduction:

Mr. Hill frequently attends city council meetings to inform our elected officials of such holidays as National (manually stimulate yourself) Day. I believe Hill said that was a women's-only holiday. He even had a poster to help illustrate his cause.

Mr. Hill also runs for seemingly every office available.

But something Mr. Hill did a week ago left him running from the law.

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I hear from Mike Huckabee's campaign that his lawyers met with leaders from the state Republican party today. They've also phoned the national party to register their displeasure with state chairman Luke Esser projecting a winner on Saturday night -- when just 87 percent of the votes were counted.

I'm waiting for a call from the state party.

In the meantime: With the state's primaries - when 19 delegates are at stake - around the corner (Feb. 19), do you think Huckabee's efforts to force a recount will help, hurt or not affect that race?

This isn't really related to politics, but longtime King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng had a remarkable career. When I saw this news release, I was reminded of the time I interviewed Maleng when he was running for the Republican nomination for governor.

I particularly remember how he talked about the death of his daughter, and how it affected Norm and his wife.

The Harborview Medical Center board of trustees requested one of their buildings be named for Maleng.

Here's the news release from the King County Council:

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The Washington Senate today started cranking up for the mid-session rush of passing bills by sending the House a measure sponsored by retired police officer and now Sen. Jerome Delvin, R-Richland.

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Sen. Mike Carrell's bill got a hearing today in the Senate Transportation Committee, but its prospects don't sound good, based on the line of questioning from his colleagues.

Senate Bill 6402 would require drivers convicted of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or if they got a deferred prosecution, to install a neon yellow license plate on their vehicle.

Sen. Ken Jacobsen, D-Seattle, was worried about branding the wrong person with the letter.

"What if it was a one-car household?" Jacobsen asked Carrell during the hearing. If another member of the family drove the car, "The mark of Cain would go on them, too?"

"Yes," Carrell said.

"Even though they didn't do anything wrong," Jacobsen said.

Committee chairwoman Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, noted that would put a burden on the family.

Chances on, Carrell's bill won't even come up for a vote in committee.

In the story about the Hilltop caucuses, Joseph Montes interviewed a man who was filming the whole affair so that he could post it on YouTube.

This morning, he found the video. Enjoy:

I talked to Patrick Bell at the state Republican party today. As we talked, phones were ringing pretty much nonstop in the background.

Bell told me the following:

"We didn't stop counting on Saturday, there was nothing left to do for the night," he said. Apparently some (especially Huckabee fans) were irked that the party stopped counting at 87 percent and declared McCain a victor. He stressed that they stopped counting because they didn't have anything left to count.

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Here are results for just the 27th District Democrats, courtesy of Nathe Lawver, county Democratic chairman.

Attendees: 5,381
Delegates: 662
Alternates: 345

Delegates went to:
Obama: 432
Clinton: 216
Undecided: 13
Kucinich: 1

Other attendance estimates:
28th Legislative district: 1,200
2nd Legislative district: 1,000

There were more attendees to the caucuses in those three districts - the 27th, 28th and 2nd - than attendees across the county in 2004.

I'll spend today looking further into the Huckabee caucus hubbub. Caucuses, by all accounts, are chaotic -- so I'd like to hear any questions or problems you encountered.

I heard from Pierce County GOP Chairman Deryl McCarty last night (curiously, I heard from Pierce County Democratic Chairman Nathe Lawver within the hour of hearing from McCarty... I doubt the correct conclusion is that they're on the same wavelength).

First, here's the county-wide numbers of who Republicans indicated as their preference (excluding three precincts) when they signed in. Again, these are not-quite final numbers:

Huckabee: 662
McCain: 613
Romney: 342
Paul: 330
Uncommitted: 189
Other: 9 (7 for Fred, 1 for Hunter, 1 for Tully, to which McCarty adds "I have no clue)

Total sign ins (minus those three precincts): 2145

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Bruce Dammeier, a candidate for the state House seat being vacated by Rep. Joyce McDonald, will be the keynote speaker at a meeting of the 25th District Republican Club.

The meeting will be Feb. 13 from 7 to 9 p.m. in the North Room of the Puyallup Public Library. (This is a departure from the club's usual meeting on the third Tuesday of the month because the library's room was booked.)

For more information, contact Robert Neilson at 253-845-0038.