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Iowa Governor Terry Branstad
The Ames Straw Poll could soon be a thing of the past. Iowa’s Republican Governor, Terry Branstad, may have delivered the death blow to the beleaguered event. From the Wall Street Journal:
“I think the straw poll has outlived its usefulness,” Mr. Branstad said of the 33-year-old GOP ritual. “It has been a great fundraiser for the party but I think its days are over.”
The Ames Straw Poll has had problems for years and suffered a real crisis of legitimacy this cycle when Mitt Romney chose to skip the event. This helped Michele Bachmann win the event, but she went on to lose the Iowa caucus by a huge margin.
Having the governor of the state say the straw poll is no longer useful could give many potential candidates an excuse to skip the rather expensive event. Candidates who may not naturally appeal to the heavily evangelical make up of the event will probably be glad to have another good justification for not wasting money on it.
If the top tier candidates don’t take part, it is going to be difficult for the media to justify paying much attention to it or hyping the results.
Photo by IowaPolitics.com under Creative Commons license
6 Comments
staw poll??
And that’s why it will stay around in some form.
Boxturtle (unless the superpacs step up to replace the money)
Could this be a move by the GOP toward sanity? The poll helps Fundy Candidates for President get a leg up in the state. I think if the GOP had its first primary contest in a more diverse state they would solve their fundy problem since the first two primary states set up the front runners for the race.
But getting rid of this poll is a first step.
Of course the way the GOP is now they can’t win without Fundies. Without fundies that leaves them Ron Paulites and of course racists.
This is the GOP’s first step to getting rid of primaries entirely. Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, with an able assist from Roger Ailes, will choose the 2016 nominee. The rank and file has proven it can’s be trusted.
Let’s hope this means they will get replace the caucuses with primaries. The caucus system favors extremist too. Home schoolers are the only ones with time for them.