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Gannett paper, link only: No straw poll? 8 ways that affects 2016 GOP horse race

Jennifer Jacobs ‏@JenniferJJacobs 20 minutes ago Maryland, USA JUST IN: The Iowa Straw Poll is dead By unanimous vote, the Iowa GOP board just voted to kill it. #iacaucus

Nobody screws up a one-car funeral, or kills the goose that lays the golden egg, quite like the Republican Party establishment. Such is the plight of a political party lead by people who don’t share the same basic values as its base. This puts the GOP in a constant state of inner turmoil. For example, just six months after a historic midterm election victory only 23 percent of Republicans believe their party’s leaders have kept their campaign promises, according to a new Pew Research poll. At the epicenter of this dysfunctional family lies my native state of Iowa: Home to...

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...

Today, Jobs, Opportunity, and New Ideas PAC announced the location of the first annual Roast and Ride, hosted by U.S. Senator Joni Ernst. The event, to be held June 6, 2015, will take place at the Central Iowa Expo grounds near Boone. The grounds are home to many summertime events, including the Farm Progress Show. “We are fortunate as Iowans to have many great places to hold events like the Roast and Ride. This year, the Central Iowa Expo is the perfect site for the inaugural event and we’re looking forward to the opportunity to bring Iowans together there this...

The Republican Party of Iowa has gotten bids from four different sites in central Iowa competing to be the host of the Iowa GOP’s Straw Poll this summer. Jeff Kaufmann, the Iowa GOP’s chairman, says the second Saturday in August is the likely date for the event. “That’s one part of the tradition we’d like to keep in terms of having it in August, so August 8 is still our target date,” Kaufmann told Radio Iowa today. “…I can’t say absolutely that if there was once heck of a deal and a great site and they absolutely couldn’t do it...

Let's take the day off from picking over the ruins of our own miserable riots and try to cheer ourselves up over Barack Obama's good fortune. What good fortune? I hear you ask. Surely he has just been humiliated over the US budget debacle and the decision of a cowboy credit rating agency to tweak America's triple-A credit status. His standing in the polls is sagging, now below 40%. Well, yes, that's all true. And he has not been a particularly brave or effective president either. Democrat or Republican, I'd be pretty disappointed, too. But election campaigns are about choice...

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann’s victory in Saturday’s straw poll in Ames, Iowa has earned her a lot of media attention for her 2012 presidential bid. But nipping at her heels only 152 votes behind was Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who has gotten little-to-no attention from the media for his feat on Saturday. And although one might think attention is deserved for Paul, according to Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer, Paul is being ignored for one reason: He doesn’t stand a chance. Krauthammer explained this on Monday’s “Special Report” on the Fox News Channel. ...more (w/video)...

The Press Room at Ames. With the media out in such force, there's a danger of an event being overplayed. Photo: Toby HarndenThe results are in..... 1. Michele Bachmann is now in the top tier of candidates, which comprises Mitt Romney, Rick Perry and the Minnesota congresswoman. Let’s not get carried away – in some respects this was the situation a week ago...A lot of the significance attached to Ames is because there were so many journalists here. So a little perspective is needed on the significance of the 16,892 ballots cast. 2. Outside the top three, it is hard...

EUREKA, Ill. -- Sarah Palin told NBC News that Rep. Michele Bachmann winning the straw poll will not affect her decision to run or not, calling her win "not much of a surprise." "It is not much of a surprise," Palin told NBC News. "I think, at this point, it is more of a test of organization. ... The prediction was that it would either be Ron Paul or Michele Bachmann, because they spent a lot of time and energy to make sure they had delegates there who would cast those votes

Good Bye Mitt Romney. If you cannot do any better then this in the Midwest your candidacy is DOA. You may win in NH but your are DOA in the South and the Midwest. Save your money Mitt, it's over.

DES MOINES, Iowa — Texas Gov. Rick Perry will make his Iowa debut Sunday in Waterloo, one day after the Ames Straw Poll. Perry will appear at the Black Hawk County Republicans’ Lincoln Day Dinner at the Electric Park Ballroom, the same location where Minnesota U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann held one of her campaign kickoff events in late June. “It was a great boost,” Gregory Tagtow of Waterloo, outreach chairman for the Black Hawk County Republicans, told IowaPolitics.com. “We were hoping because of the closeness to the straw poll to get a presidential candidate or two.” The event comes a...

Who will be on the official ballot for the Iowa straw poll in Ames on Aug. 13? Nine GOP candidates -- including three who will not participate in the festivities: * Michele Bachmann (will have a tent at the event) * Herman Cain (will have a tent at the event) * Thaddeus McCotter (will have a tent at the event) * Tim Pawlenty (will have a tent at the event) * Ron Paul (will have a tent at the event) * Rick Santorum (will have a tent at the event) * Mitt Romney (will NOT have a tent at the...

Republican National Committee member Steve Scheffler e-mailed me this morning to say that he’ll be “lobbying hard” to include Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on the Iowa Republican Straw Poll ballot. - Kathie Obradovich/DesMoinesRegister.com

Clay County GOP chairwoman Kirstine Thiessen confirmed that Perry won the straw poll vote the other night, which was held among those on hand for a planned meeting. The county, I'm told, is in Rep. Steve King's district, and abuts Minnesota. Of the 59 votes cast, Perry won with 15, followed by Michele Bachmann with 9, Thiessen said. Rick Santorum got eight, Ron Paul got 6, Hermain Cain got 5, Thaddeus McCotter got four, and tied with Tim Pawlenty and Mitt Romney for that number. Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin each got two votes. It's not quite a representative sample...

This e-wire / report ultimately makes two points: 1. The voting process at the Iowa Straw Poll was a fraud, wrapped in lies. (Whenever those running any kind of an election use police power to hide all the ballots from the people, and then announce results (?) when supposedly (?) only they have seen the ballots – those people are frauds, are acting like Stalin-esque tyrants, and their organization is a fraud. That award goes in our current drama to the Iowa GOP leadership, namely Ted Sporer, Chuck Laudner, Mary Tiffany, Craig Robinson, and Chairman Ray Hoffman. What they did...

Duncan Hunter's Iowa Straw Poll speech.

Actual op-ed column, or parody of Upper West Side liberal mockery of Middle America? You be the judge of this p.p.v. opus today by Gail Collins, New York Times columnist turned Editorial Page Editor now returned to her column-writing roots. We'll begin with the title, Republicans in the Straw, and proceed to these excerpts: Today 40,000 Republicans are expected to make a pilgrimage to a large tent in Ames, Iowa, where they will eat an enormous amount of free food and vote for a presidential candidate. Mitt Romney is going to serve barbecue, and one of his sons has just...

Paul Camp May Catch Romney’s Bus Ron Paul’s supporters are actively encouraging Iowa voters to take advantage of Mitt Romney’s offers of free transportation to the Iowa Straw Poll on Saturday and then, once they are there, to vote for Mr. Paul.... “Some say if Mitt is willing to bus Iowans to Ames for the straw poll, they should take him up on his offer!” says a flier in Iowa and on the Internet ...The flier is topped with a banner that says “2008 Ron Paul News,” but Jesse Benton, a campaign spokesman, said it was the handiwork of independent...

It doesn't take much to see that conservative, Republican voters are still having a little trouble deciding which way to turn in the 2008 presidential election. If you listen closely to the American people, you will hear people talking about the concept of an ideal candidate. Sean Hannity described him as someone with the optimism and the ability to speak to the public like Ronald Reagan, and with the intellectual backbone of Newt Gingrich. Let me make a proposal to you about Congressman Duncan Hunter. Congressman Hunter is not just another politician. If you look at his list of accomplishments,...