bobbyw24
04-14-2010, 05:33 AM
Early Republican Straw Polls Viewed As Measure of A Candidate’s Ability to Organize Supporters
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
By Fred Lucas, Staff Writer
(CNSNews.com) – On Saturday, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) came within one vote of beating former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in the Southern Republican Leadership Conference (SRLC) straw poll in New Orleans.
Romney won 439 votes to Paul’s 438 out of a total of 1,764 votes cast. Each man received 24 percent of the vote.
The poll in New Orleans came more than a month after Paul defeated Romney in a straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C. There, Paul captured 31 percent of the vote to Romney’s 22 percent, out of the 2,395 votes cast.
Neither straw poll was a scientific sampling of likely Republican primary voters for 2012, but they do indicate how well candidates can organize for an event.
http://media.cnsnews.com/resources/64106.jpg
“We know that Ron Paul has very well-organized supporters who (are) enthusiastically turning out and publicizing straw polls. That could lead to over-performance in straw polls,” David Boaz, executive vice president of the libertarian Cato Institute, told CNSNews.com.
“On the other hand, enthusiasm and effort do count in politics,” he said. “(Republicans) ought to consider the possibility that it isn’t just that -- there is a reason that Ron Paul has attracted significant support in 2007, 2008 and now on into 2010.”
Organizing voters is what elections are all about, said Gary Howard, spokesman for the Campaign for Liberty, a political organizing group that emerged from Paul’s 2008 presidential campaign.
“What’s the complaint? That you can organize supporters and they will come vote for you?” Howard told CNSNews.com. “That’s how elections work. If you can’t organize supporters to come out and vote, you won’t win.”
Paul, an 11-term congressman, made a strong showing over the weekend against Republican establishment candidates such as Romney and 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who came in third place with 18 percent of the vote.
Paul was the 1988 Libertarian Party presidential nominee. In the 2008 cycle, he ran against the Republican establishment as a Republican, opposing the war in Iraq and generally opposing international intervention policies.
Regardless of his strong straw-poll showings, Paul is still a long shot for actually winning his party’s nomination, said Michael Hagen, a political science professor at Temple University. But his performance should not be ignored.
“At the very least, this shows Mr. Paul has a campaign organization that has an appeal and can deliver votes,” Hagen told CNSNews.com. “There is afoot a lot of enthusiasm out there. It will be interesting to see which Republican candidate capitalizes on that.”
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/64105
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
By Fred Lucas, Staff Writer
(CNSNews.com) – On Saturday, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) came within one vote of beating former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in the Southern Republican Leadership Conference (SRLC) straw poll in New Orleans.
Romney won 439 votes to Paul’s 438 out of a total of 1,764 votes cast. Each man received 24 percent of the vote.
The poll in New Orleans came more than a month after Paul defeated Romney in a straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C. There, Paul captured 31 percent of the vote to Romney’s 22 percent, out of the 2,395 votes cast.
Neither straw poll was a scientific sampling of likely Republican primary voters for 2012, but they do indicate how well candidates can organize for an event.
http://media.cnsnews.com/resources/64106.jpg
“We know that Ron Paul has very well-organized supporters who (are) enthusiastically turning out and publicizing straw polls. That could lead to over-performance in straw polls,” David Boaz, executive vice president of the libertarian Cato Institute, told CNSNews.com.
“On the other hand, enthusiasm and effort do count in politics,” he said. “(Republicans) ought to consider the possibility that it isn’t just that -- there is a reason that Ron Paul has attracted significant support in 2007, 2008 and now on into 2010.”
Organizing voters is what elections are all about, said Gary Howard, spokesman for the Campaign for Liberty, a political organizing group that emerged from Paul’s 2008 presidential campaign.
“What’s the complaint? That you can organize supporters and they will come vote for you?” Howard told CNSNews.com. “That’s how elections work. If you can’t organize supporters to come out and vote, you won’t win.”
Paul, an 11-term congressman, made a strong showing over the weekend against Republican establishment candidates such as Romney and 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who came in third place with 18 percent of the vote.
Paul was the 1988 Libertarian Party presidential nominee. In the 2008 cycle, he ran against the Republican establishment as a Republican, opposing the war in Iraq and generally opposing international intervention policies.
Regardless of his strong straw-poll showings, Paul is still a long shot for actually winning his party’s nomination, said Michael Hagen, a political science professor at Temple University. But his performance should not be ignored.
“At the very least, this shows Mr. Paul has a campaign organization that has an appeal and can deliver votes,” Hagen told CNSNews.com. “There is afoot a lot of enthusiasm out there. It will be interesting to see which Republican candidate capitalizes on that.”
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/64105