Posted on 09/09/2007 10:40:15 AM PDT by LdSentinal
A curious thing happened this year at the Maryland Republican Party booth at the State Fair: A GOP presidential straw poll was won by Ron Paul, the idiosyncratic congressman from Texas who is a fierce critic of the Iraq war.
Perhaps just as curious was the Maryland GOP's decision to trumpet the results in a news release last week with the headline: "Maryland GOP Presidential Straw Poll Is a Big Success; Grassroots Candidate Wins Surprise Upset."
According to the release, Paul received 263 votes, and former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani (for whom Republican former governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. is toiling) was second with 220 votes. (Ehrlich received three write-in votes.) Former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson-- who had yet to declare his candidacy -- finished third with 188 votes. No other candidate cracked 100 votes.
All told, nearly 1,000 people cast ballots in the Maryland GOP's first-ever presidential straw poll at the fair. The party said the straw poll was open to everyone of voting age, regardless of party affiliation, who stopped by the GOP booth.
The campaigns of nine GOP presidential candidates were invited to have representatives at the booth. It turns out only Paul had someone there all 11 days, the party said.
"The final vote showing Ron Paul won is a lesson for all campaigns of how grass-roots politics can make all the difference," said Chris Cavey, first vice chairman of the Maryland Republican Party and co-chairman of the party's State Fair Planning Committee.
"The Paul campaign repeatedly e-mailed their base of support to turn out at the State Fair to cast a vote for Dr. Paul, and in doing so, demonstrated that a small, organized operation can beat the odds."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
“VOTE FOR RON PAUL YOU STUPID INFIDELS!!”
This is bull***t. It was open to everyone of voting age, regardless of party affiliation, who stopped by the GOP booth(and probably as many times as they wanted to vote.) Just like any good democrap.
I’m just posting on what happened. It’s sorta interesting to me.
No. You should be trying to figure out what difference the big results make. In reality, I mean.
FR Members.
Duncan Hunter 37.0% 448
Mike Huckabee 15.6% 189
Ron Paul 12.0% 145
Rudy Giuliani 10.9% 132
Mitt Romney 9.8% 119
John McCain 8.4% 102
Tom Tancredo 4.9% 59
Sam Brownback 1.5% 18
100.1% 1,212
Non-Member Opinion
Ron Paul 27.6% 359
Duncan Hunter 22.1% 287
Mike Huckabee 16.5% 214
Rudy Giuliani 12.5% 163
Mitt Romney 7.5% 97
John McCain 6.6% 86
Tom Tancredo 5.7% 74
Sam Brownback 1.5% 19
100.0% 1,299
It’s pathetic how the RuPaulettes think that by FReeping a poll they somehow will change the hard and fast statistics of reality.
As a Maryland resident I can’t say I’ve not seen any RuPaul yard signs, bumper stickers or media promoting him. Though that’s anecdotal it reinforces this FReepers opinion the RuPaulettes are deluded and juvenile.
Come on! This is Maryland for pete’s sake. You can’t take those people seriously. No one does.
laughing
LOL do you have a similar graphic for Arnold Schwarzenegger? LOL
REP. PAUL: No! (Cheers, applause.) I’m saying — (laughter) — I’m saying we should take our marching orders from our Constitution. We should not go to war — (cheers, applause) — we should not go to war without a declaration. We should not go to war when it’s an aggressive war. This is an aggressive invasion. We’ve committed the invasion of this war, and it’s illegal under international law. That’s where I take my marching orders, not from any enemy. (Cheers, boos.)
whenever I see these results for Paul, I think Hillary is behind this. You just know she has a major committee whose only job is to secure a 3rd party candidate to siphon off Republican votes. We have seen from the fundraising scandals and other moves that she has essentially just dusted off Bill’s playbook, and they well know the key factor in their victory was Perot.
The vote totals are pathetic. How well advertised/visible was this. You get than many people standing in line at the NY State fair when they don’t even know what the line is for. Rooster crowing contest double that, the Spam trailer double yet again and Dinosaur BBQ - forgetaboutit.
Either Maryland has no REPUBS, the State Fair was a bust or the booth was behind the live bear exhibit.
P.S.: L.Ron, for the umpteenth time, we did NOT go to war without a declaration. Stop the lying bullshit.
With some of Paul's whack ideas, and the support he gets on sites like DU and Daily KOS, I think he'd pull off even more Democrat votes.
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