Posted on 05/21/2015 5:51:08 AM PDT by GIdget2004
Former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-Ark.) will skip the Iowa Straw Poll in 2016, he confirmed in an op-ed for The Des Moines Register in which he questions the relevancy of the poll that helped spur his 2008 bid
I have concluded this year's Iowa straw poll will serve only to weaken conservative candidates and further empower the Washington ruling class and their hand-picked candidates, he wrote.
It's clear that pitting conservative candidates with limited resources against each other in a non-binding and expensive summer straw poll battle, while allowing billionaire-backed establishment candidates to sit out, will only wound and weaken the conservative candidates who best represent conservative and hard-working Iowans.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
I think you give him to much credit, his plan is far more simple.
1. Accept campaign contributions
2. Use contributions to buy your new book
3. profit.
I'll drink to that!
The establishment is placing their hopes on the cross-over, winner-take-all states. What’s the earliest of those?
Huckabee isn't even a good liar. The Iowa straw poll is more biased to the perceived conservative evangelical candidate, not the "Washington ruling class"! LOL. He and Santorum are the last two winners. How can he spin that?!!!
Cross?!!! What cross?! How dare you call out my televangelistic pandering!!!
Earliest date for winner-take-all GOP primaries is March 15. Florida is the big prize. Missouri and Illinois also have primaries that day.
Huck skipping. Jeb supposedly also skilling.
Sounds like they have seen insider polls and want to avoid embarrassing early low votes.
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Historically, however, the Iowa straw polls have meant very little. Only one non-incumbent has won it and the presidency in the last 50 years.
Santorum won it in 2012. Huckabee won it in 2008. Neither accumulated enough delegates to force themselves into a VP slot at a minimum.
He won it in 2008; ergo, he must consider himself part of that ruling class? Or maybe it's just that the guy he is the stalking horse for in 2016 (Jeb) is.
He's a lying pastor.
The Iowa Straw Poll (formerly Ames Straw Poll) is not the same as the Iowa Caucuses.
Romney won the 2007 Ames Straw Poll by a wide margin. Michele Bachmann won the 2011 Ames Straw Poll by a narrow margin over Ron Paul.
The Straw Poll is a fundraiser intended to be more like a Republican state fair.
...yes....
I predict the Paul pothead will win all straw polls then light up the straw and smoke it.
I think Florida is winner take all this time...these rules, and even the order of the states, is fluid right now.
Of course he is. He has zero chance of winning.
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I’m not fan of Huckabee (too liberal economically), but he did the right thing here for the right reasons. The poll gives liberal ethanol Republicans in Iowa more influence than they deserve.
Winner take all states are disproportionately cross-over states, iirc. Nonetheless, winner-take-all states ARE disproportionately blue and purple states. Shared delegate states are disproportionately red states. IOW, a liberal republican will win the New York vote. They’ll get all the delegates. OTOH, The liberal will do poorly in perhaps Texas (just guessing at an example), but the conservative leading candidate will get only a fraction of the delegates.
If he had just said, “I’m not doing well there, so I’m putting my money elsewhere”, I would have been fine with it. But, to say something is irrelevant that he basked in on his previous run is blatant hypocrisy.
Scott Walker and several other candidates will skip the Iowa Straw Poll. RedState Gathering is at the same time and it’s pretty tough for a candidate to make an impact at both.
I believe Huck in only running in order to give a Rino his endorsement in the final days of the primary.
Bush is out also so I guess they can campaign together somewhere else.
The good news: I don't see much of a response for him here on FR this time. Also, I don't hear his name from my evangelical circle of friends, nor do I see him discussed as an option by my wife's Facebook friends.
I do see those things as good news. That may be anecdotal, but I think we can all agree, Huck needs to not run or be knocked out early.
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