State GOP Pick Gingrich In Presidential Straw Poll (AP) Minneapolis Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who engineered the Republican takeover of Congress a dozen years ago, got a boost Friday from Minnesota conservatives who want him to run for president in 2008. Gingrich was the top vote-getter in a straw poll of GOP activists at the state party convention. But the vote is at best a limited reflection of Republican sentiment in the state -- the ranks of the 1,275 delegates had thinned down considerably by the time the poll was taken, and 540 valid votes were cast. That was...