Posted on 08/16/2007 4:10:41 PM PDT by lfrancis
Mitt Romney Wins Illinois Straw Poll - Thursday, August 16, 2007
SPRINGFIELD, IL Illinois State Republican Party Chairman Andy McKenna announced today that Mitt Romney won the Illinois Straw Poll on Republican Day at the Illinois State Fair.
Congratulations to Mitt Romney, whose strong showing today indicates he has begun to put together a strong statewide organization said McKenna. Theres no question that Illinois demographics closely match those of the United States and this could be an indication as to whom Illinois voters are leaning toward this coming February.
The Illinois Republican Party sponsored the straw poll during its Republican Day festivities at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield. Requirements to participate were: having participated in one of the previously held Republican Presidential Debates; or having polled above 5% in a national, independent poll.
As I watched hundreds of people literally standing in the rain to vote in our straw poll, it drove home that the Illinois Republican Party is strongly united, said McKenna. This was a phenomenal opportunity for the grassroots leaders of the Party to hear from the presidential campaigns.
The Illinois Republican Presidential Straw Poll was conducted on electronic voting machines and ran from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Final Results:
1. Mitt Romney 40.35% 2. Fred Thompson 19.96% 3. Ron Paul 18.87% 4. Rudy Giuliani 11.61% 5. John McCain 4.12% 6. Mike Huckabee 3.04% 7. Sam Brownback 1.08% 8. Duncan Hunter - .65% 9. Tom Tancredo - .33%
Bigots on parade. FR’s got almost as many as DU. And you can find them all fulminating on the Mitt Romney threads.
You ask a question. Don’t like the answer and call me a “bogot”.
I’m real tired of this crap.
“Bigots on parade. FRs got almost as many as DU. And you can find them all fulminating on the Mitt Romney threads.”
If anyone qualifies as a bigot - look in the mirror.
Says it all.
Look, supporters of those who did well will say the poll is meaningful, others whose candidates did not (or who have a phobia towards one who did well) will dismiss the results as meaningless. As for me, I just know that it is better to do well in polls than it is to do poorly! And I don’t see why a straw poll should be less meaningful than a telephone poll. It seems like this kind of straw poll is closer to conditions in an actual primary than a telephone poll would be.
Anyway, here is commentary from another web site about the numbers,
” Mitt Romney is a national candidate who has the base to carry his Iowa win over to another state. Mike Huckabee’s and Sam Brownback’s Iowa results appear to be a result of concentrating their resources in Iowa. It does not look like they are parlaying their finish in the Iowa Straw poll to a strong national, or even regional, appeal.
Rudy Giuliani does not seem to have much appeal in the heartlands. He and John McCain seem more like media creations than true dominant candidates.
Fred Thompson continues to garner interest, in spite of fears that his campaign has peaked too soon. Ron Paul pushed Thompson very hard for a second place finish in this poll. Assuming Thompson enters, those two may battle it out for the “limited government conservative” vote which makes up so much of the GOP. Giuliani is emerging as the candidate for liberal republicans, and Mitt Romney is running hard right in an effort to convince the moderate to mild right Republicans that he is their man.”
922 voters, what is that about 1 tenth of the people at the fair, LOL that is a real Hoot!!!
Mitts just under 9 million in debt.
How do you know they didn't vote for Romney?
Pretty meaningless.
You want to know what is interesting about this? There actually is a Republican Party here in Illinois! They must come out every 17 years like the cicadas.
RHINO 911 — Fred and McCain on patrol ;-)
IMHO it is because he lacks name recognition. MSM has deliberately ignored him.
I see over 18% of the people voted for Ron Paul, or 174 votes. Hey that’s how many votes ol’ Protectionist Dunc got at the Iowa straw vote isn’t it? How many did he get this time? 6? Well it’s a start....
This group votes. And it's becoming more vocal. We may yet influence the election enough either a Constitutional conservative is elected or the nation goes further to pot with a liberal from either party. And that includes these nationalist morality candidates that don't understand the rights of the separate and sovereign states. Your choice.
Democrats would have picked Rudy or McCain - Rudy because he is most like them, McCain because he would hurt the GOP ticket.
Don’t dare look at how much it cost him and how in DEBT he is for one itsy bitsy tiny weeny straw poll.
People don’t want a RHINO.
This poll was so UNIMPORTANT that leading candidates didn’t bother to show up. I hope being nearly 9 million in debt and spending 6 months there was worth it. As an educated voter - he will not have my vote or other fellow conservatives. We simply don't want a RHINO as our next President.
About Ron Paul supporters.. my personal opinion is that the Ron Paul supporters really were his supporters, and they don’t all fit into one bucket... I talked (debated) several of them after the results were announced, and found them to be very informed, and they could articulate there points very well. I disagreed with many of their viewpoints, particularly the strong tendency they have to blame American leaders for Islamic Jihadist Terrorism. They honestly believe it is our fault. Nearly all of them see themselves as being strict Constitutionalists (Is that a word?) They have strong opinions on this and other matters, and though I disagree with them on many things, they are not stupid, just misinformed :) (that’s a smile on the internet). Several admitted that if anyone other than Ron Paul were nominated, they would vote for a third party candidate, even knowing that it could give the election to Hillary Clinton. They realize that she is opposite with them on many things, but many said they would vote their conscious and vote for a third party candidate anyway. Others, however, said they would vote for Romney, because he himself is so strong on the Constitution, but would not vote for other Republican candidates. Most of them admit they are more Libertarian than they are Republican, but I think very few of them were cross over Democrats. Because they are more energized a much higher percentage shows up for these kinds of things than what they would be in the general population...
To sum it up, it was a pretty even playing field...Mitt Romney hadn’t campaigned in Illinois one bit, and yet he more than doubled that of any other candidate....Those of you who keep talking about his poor showing in the National Polls are apparently not noticing that he has come from around 5% in March to about 16% now. I believe his strategy of steam rolling most (if not all) the early primaries will pay off for him.
(I’m a FRed fan.) I have to admit that I didn’t know who Duncan Hunter was until this spring.
Did you see Hunter on Sean Hannity’s show in San Diego? Thompson was interviewed, and he talked about his campaign. When Hunter was interviewed [on national TV, mind you], he talked only about the border—didn’t mention his campaign.
Now, if I’m a voter who’s never seen or heard of Hunter before—and he doesn’t talk about his presidential campaign—how do I know that he’s a candidate or what he’s running on? Why wouldn’t he take advantage of the opportunity and a conservative audience to talk about his campaign? I really have to question the way Hunter has run his campaign, not the MSM’s coverage of his candidacy.
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