The lack of an exciting candidate in the republican field showed yesterday at the Ames Iowa republican straw poll, a fundraiser for the Iowa Republican Party. The turnout was nearly 10,000 people less than 1999's event, the last year a straw poll was held to determine the frontrunner in Iowa. Since Bush was running for reelection in 2004, there was no need for a 2003 straw poll, though judging by his abysmal performance as president, it might have been a good idea for someone to challenge him.
A couple of things were clear as the vote totals were posted. Tommy Thompson's sixth place showing is a bad sign for his campaign. If a popular governor from a neighboring state can't show in the top three, that is a harbinger of lack of organizational ability and will not bode well for future fundraising. I'm looking for ole' Tommy to drop out by Monday at the latest and throw his support behind Giuliani or Fred Thompson. Speaking of Fred, he finished a respectable seventh, not bad for a guy who hasn't announced yet and didn't pay for his votes like the top finisher Mitt Romney.
It was estimated that Romney paid $218 for each person who attended and voted in the straw poll. Heck, that's more than Jim Nussle is making right now.
I was surprised that Ron Paul finished fifth behind hate-monger Tom Tancredo, a one-trick pony on immigration. You'd have thought that with all the hype behind Paul's campaign, they could have pulled out at least second or third. This result show a serious lack of central organization in Paul's campaign, something he'll have to fix if he wants to be taken seriously at caucus.
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"You'd have thought that with all the hype behind Paul's campaign, they could have pulled out at least second or third."
9% was very good for Paul; he's on his way up but only been polling at around 2-3% in telephone polls. So 9% is excellent progress, especially since it proves his online support can translate to real life.
The other point is that Paul spent far less time in Iowa than the four who beat him, who have basically been camping out in Iowa for the past 3 months:
Ron Paul 17 days
Mitt Romney 89 days
Mike Huckabee 70 days
Tom Tancredo 66 days
Sam Brownback 115 days
http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/014637.html
As the link shows, Paul had by far the highest Straw Poll Votes-to-Days in Iowa ratio, suggesting room for growth north of his 9%.
Posted by: Buckwheat | August 12, 2007 2:56 PM | Permalink to Comment