banyon
08-11-2007, 07:33 PM
Romney wins straw poll, Huckabee 2nd
Candidate Votes
Results are certified by State Auditor David Vaudt and Chairman Ray Hoffmann:
Mitt Romney
4516
31.5%
Mike Huckabee
2587
18.1%
Sam Brownback
2192
15.3%
Tom Tancredo
1961
13.7%
Ron Paul
1305
9.1%
Tommy Thompson
1039
7.3%
Fred Thompson
203
1.4%
Rudy Giuliani
183
1.3%
Duncan Hunter
174
1.2%
John McCain
101
1.0%
John Cox
41
0.1%
14,302 Total Votes
26,000 Total Tickets Sold \
http://cycloneconservatives.blogspot.com/
THOMAS BEAUMONT AND JENNIFER JACOBS
REGISTER STAFF WRITERS
http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070811/NEWS/70811009/1001/cyclone_insider
August 11, 2007
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won today's Iowa Straw Poll, with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee coming in second place.
Voting machine difficulties delayed the announcement of the vote totals tonight at the Iowa Straw Poll. About 1,500 ballots needed to be recounted, said Mary Tiffany, a spokeswoman for Republican Party of Iowa. One machine caused the problem, said Chuck Laudner, the party’s executive director.
Voting machine difficulties delayed the announcement of the vote totals tonight at the Iowa Straw Poll.
About 1,500 ballots needed to be recounted, said Mary Tiffany, a spokeswoman for Republican Party of Iowa.
One machine caused the problem, said Chuck Laudner, the party’s executive director.
At one point, its black box contained 500 paper ballots but the machine’s memory said it had scanned in 498.
All the ballots fed into that machine throughout the day were hand counted, and now are being re-fed into the machine to recalculate the vote.
“As soon as they get down to the bottom of that stack the results are finished and they’ll be up on the board,” Laudner said at 7:45 p.m.
The machine was at a voting station in the Scheman Building, and the problem was noted by campaign poll-watchers before the poll closed.
Under a blanket of relentless August heat, thousands of Iowa Republicans, most of the party's candidates for president, and a horde of reporters and photographers from around the globe converged on Ames today for an early exercise in the process of picking a Republican presidential candidate.
Whether the Iowa Republican Party's presidential straw poll is over-hyped and overrated was not foremost on the minds of the party members who trekked to Hilton Coliseum to take in this spectacle in American politics.
On their minds, of course, were the eight candidates for president who were in Ames and the message they had for the participants.
But for some people, what was on their minds was the food that the candidates had trucked in for the event — following through on the theory that one way to people’s hearts and minds is to go through their stomachs.
A virtual buffet line of interest groups were at Hilton, too — using the event as a way to spread their message with the people who turned out under the day’s bright blue skies.
Participants had the chance to rub shoulders with eight of the party's candidates, listen to entertainers lined up by various candidates, sit in on the speeches the eight candidates were going to give this afternoon, and then cast their vote in the straw poll.
The results will be announced at 7 p.m.
"What the straw poll is going to do is weed out some of the field," said Roger Hughes, a former Hamilton County Republican chairman, who helped devise the GOP fundraising event and early Iowa test 30 years ago.
The event raises money for the Iowa Republican Party through the rental fees the candidates and interest groups pay to erect their tents. And tickets for individual participants are $35 each.
The straw poll is intended to demonstrate which campaigns have best mobilized their supporters five months in advance of the Iowa precinct caucuses.
The run-up to the straw poll has produced a bitter fight between former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the clear favorite who has invested the most in preparing for the nonbinding vote, and Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, who hopes to leave Ames as the candidate favored by Iowa social conservatives.
Also attending the event are candidates John Cox of Illinois, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, U.S. Reps. Duncan Hunter of California, Ron Paul of Texas and Tom Tancredo of Colorado, and former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson.
Despite its significance as the largest gathering of Republicans before the party's 2008 national convention in Minneapolis, the straw poll has endured doubts about its significance this year — especially since well-known candidates Rudy Giuliani and John McCain decided to stay away from the event.
Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, will be idle in New York today. McCain, a senator from Arizona, will be campaigning in New Hampshire, aides said.
Likewise, former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee, who is planning to announce his candidacy for the GOP nomination in the coming weeks, stayed away from Ames, too.
All three no-shows will be on the straw poll's ballot, however.
Romney has the most riding on the straw poll, and he hopes to meet the high bar he has set by his heavy financial investment in preparing for the event. Romney has paid a consultant roughly $200,000 to carry out his straw poll plan.
He has tried to control expectations in recent weeks in an attempt to avoid an underwhelming performance. But Romney's campaign also has been conducting an automated telephone campaign to encourage non-Republicans to attend the Ames event.
Giuliani aides sought to heap on the pressure by suggesting that Romney could win the voting today by an 8-to-1 margin over the second-place finisher.
Romney has led in most polls of GOP caucusgoers in Iowa, although national polls have shown him trailing Giuliani, McCain and Fred Thompson.
Romney said a victory would be read as a breakthrough moment for his campaign nationally.
"For whoever wins, it will be a very positive boost for their campaign," Romney said in an interview. "I think it will boost recognition around the country. You know the names, but people who do well in Ames and in Iowa get a real turbo charge for their national campaign."
That happened in 1999 when George W. Bush, then the governor of Texas, won the Ames straw poll en route to a first-place finish in the 2000 Iowa caucuses.
Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas tied for first with Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas in the 1995 straw poll before Dole went on to capture the caucuses.
Brownback has gone after Romney in the weeks leading up to today's event, with the hope of diminishing Romney's support among strict social conservatives, a loyal bloc of straw poll attendees.
"The straw poll and the caucuses are a very targeted group you are trying to reach," Brownback said in an interview. "It's showing differences in the candidates which will come up throughout the election cycle, leadership on core issues."
The three high-profile absences of Giuliani, McCain and Fred Thompson have changed the nature of the straw poll from a potential first look at candidate strength in the field at large to a chance for someone in the second tier of candidates to emerge.
Any candidate who attends the straw poll and finishes behind a candidate who skips the event should reconsider whether to stay in the race, said John Maxwell, top adviser to Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa.
"It all boils down to this: If you put a lot of emphasis on the straw poll and don't do well, how do you get the money to continue going?" asked Maxwell.
Tommy Thompson, who has crisscrossed Iowa regularly, said flatly that he would quit the race if he does not win or place second today.
"If a candidate doesn't win, place or show, they should not go on," Thompson said. "I've also elevated it. I will not go on if I don't win or place."
The Iowa Republican Party is hoping more than 38,000 people attend the event today, topping the attendance of the 1999 event. More than 400 press credentials have been requested by journalists planning to cover the event, party officials said.
Parking for more than 500 motor coaches has been arranged to accommodate the 100 or more buses each rented by Brownback, Huckabee and Romney.
Brownback has arranged for food from Famous Dave's for more than 5,000 people.
Candidate Votes
Results are certified by State Auditor David Vaudt and Chairman Ray Hoffmann:
Mitt Romney
4516
31.5%
Mike Huckabee
2587
18.1%
Sam Brownback
2192
15.3%
Tom Tancredo
1961
13.7%
Ron Paul
1305
9.1%
Tommy Thompson
1039
7.3%
Fred Thompson
203
1.4%
Rudy Giuliani
183
1.3%
Duncan Hunter
174
1.2%
John McCain
101
1.0%
John Cox
41
0.1%
14,302 Total Votes
26,000 Total Tickets Sold \
http://cycloneconservatives.blogspot.com/
THOMAS BEAUMONT AND JENNIFER JACOBS
REGISTER STAFF WRITERS
http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070811/NEWS/70811009/1001/cyclone_insider
August 11, 2007
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won today's Iowa Straw Poll, with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee coming in second place.
Voting machine difficulties delayed the announcement of the vote totals tonight at the Iowa Straw Poll. About 1,500 ballots needed to be recounted, said Mary Tiffany, a spokeswoman for Republican Party of Iowa. One machine caused the problem, said Chuck Laudner, the party’s executive director.
Voting machine difficulties delayed the announcement of the vote totals tonight at the Iowa Straw Poll.
About 1,500 ballots needed to be recounted, said Mary Tiffany, a spokeswoman for Republican Party of Iowa.
One machine caused the problem, said Chuck Laudner, the party’s executive director.
At one point, its black box contained 500 paper ballots but the machine’s memory said it had scanned in 498.
All the ballots fed into that machine throughout the day were hand counted, and now are being re-fed into the machine to recalculate the vote.
“As soon as they get down to the bottom of that stack the results are finished and they’ll be up on the board,” Laudner said at 7:45 p.m.
The machine was at a voting station in the Scheman Building, and the problem was noted by campaign poll-watchers before the poll closed.
Under a blanket of relentless August heat, thousands of Iowa Republicans, most of the party's candidates for president, and a horde of reporters and photographers from around the globe converged on Ames today for an early exercise in the process of picking a Republican presidential candidate.
Whether the Iowa Republican Party's presidential straw poll is over-hyped and overrated was not foremost on the minds of the party members who trekked to Hilton Coliseum to take in this spectacle in American politics.
On their minds, of course, were the eight candidates for president who were in Ames and the message they had for the participants.
But for some people, what was on their minds was the food that the candidates had trucked in for the event — following through on the theory that one way to people’s hearts and minds is to go through their stomachs.
A virtual buffet line of interest groups were at Hilton, too — using the event as a way to spread their message with the people who turned out under the day’s bright blue skies.
Participants had the chance to rub shoulders with eight of the party's candidates, listen to entertainers lined up by various candidates, sit in on the speeches the eight candidates were going to give this afternoon, and then cast their vote in the straw poll.
The results will be announced at 7 p.m.
"What the straw poll is going to do is weed out some of the field," said Roger Hughes, a former Hamilton County Republican chairman, who helped devise the GOP fundraising event and early Iowa test 30 years ago.
The event raises money for the Iowa Republican Party through the rental fees the candidates and interest groups pay to erect their tents. And tickets for individual participants are $35 each.
The straw poll is intended to demonstrate which campaigns have best mobilized their supporters five months in advance of the Iowa precinct caucuses.
The run-up to the straw poll has produced a bitter fight between former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the clear favorite who has invested the most in preparing for the nonbinding vote, and Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, who hopes to leave Ames as the candidate favored by Iowa social conservatives.
Also attending the event are candidates John Cox of Illinois, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, U.S. Reps. Duncan Hunter of California, Ron Paul of Texas and Tom Tancredo of Colorado, and former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson.
Despite its significance as the largest gathering of Republicans before the party's 2008 national convention in Minneapolis, the straw poll has endured doubts about its significance this year — especially since well-known candidates Rudy Giuliani and John McCain decided to stay away from the event.
Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, will be idle in New York today. McCain, a senator from Arizona, will be campaigning in New Hampshire, aides said.
Likewise, former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee, who is planning to announce his candidacy for the GOP nomination in the coming weeks, stayed away from Ames, too.
All three no-shows will be on the straw poll's ballot, however.
Romney has the most riding on the straw poll, and he hopes to meet the high bar he has set by his heavy financial investment in preparing for the event. Romney has paid a consultant roughly $200,000 to carry out his straw poll plan.
He has tried to control expectations in recent weeks in an attempt to avoid an underwhelming performance. But Romney's campaign also has been conducting an automated telephone campaign to encourage non-Republicans to attend the Ames event.
Giuliani aides sought to heap on the pressure by suggesting that Romney could win the voting today by an 8-to-1 margin over the second-place finisher.
Romney has led in most polls of GOP caucusgoers in Iowa, although national polls have shown him trailing Giuliani, McCain and Fred Thompson.
Romney said a victory would be read as a breakthrough moment for his campaign nationally.
"For whoever wins, it will be a very positive boost for their campaign," Romney said in an interview. "I think it will boost recognition around the country. You know the names, but people who do well in Ames and in Iowa get a real turbo charge for their national campaign."
That happened in 1999 when George W. Bush, then the governor of Texas, won the Ames straw poll en route to a first-place finish in the 2000 Iowa caucuses.
Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas tied for first with Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas in the 1995 straw poll before Dole went on to capture the caucuses.
Brownback has gone after Romney in the weeks leading up to today's event, with the hope of diminishing Romney's support among strict social conservatives, a loyal bloc of straw poll attendees.
"The straw poll and the caucuses are a very targeted group you are trying to reach," Brownback said in an interview. "It's showing differences in the candidates which will come up throughout the election cycle, leadership on core issues."
The three high-profile absences of Giuliani, McCain and Fred Thompson have changed the nature of the straw poll from a potential first look at candidate strength in the field at large to a chance for someone in the second tier of candidates to emerge.
Any candidate who attends the straw poll and finishes behind a candidate who skips the event should reconsider whether to stay in the race, said John Maxwell, top adviser to Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa.
"It all boils down to this: If you put a lot of emphasis on the straw poll and don't do well, how do you get the money to continue going?" asked Maxwell.
Tommy Thompson, who has crisscrossed Iowa regularly, said flatly that he would quit the race if he does not win or place second today.
"If a candidate doesn't win, place or show, they should not go on," Thompson said. "I've also elevated it. I will not go on if I don't win or place."
The Iowa Republican Party is hoping more than 38,000 people attend the event today, topping the attendance of the 1999 event. More than 400 press credentials have been requested by journalists planning to cover the event, party officials said.
Parking for more than 500 motor coaches has been arranged to accommodate the 100 or more buses each rented by Brownback, Huckabee and Romney.
Brownback has arranged for food from Famous Dave's for more than 5,000 people.