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Is Iowa’s straw poll a significant political event?
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A voter who voted for Republican presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, shows his finger marked with indelible ink as he picks up a free shirt at the Republican Party's Straw Poll in Ames, Iowa, Saturday, Aug. 13, 2011. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Gov. Terry Branstad said Monday he supports a regional system of fundraising forums and events for GOP presidential candidates in 2015 rather than the traditional Ames straw poll in August as a way to raise money, allow Republicans to meet the party hopefuls, and preserve Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses.
The Republican governor told reporters his foremost goal is to preserve the lead-off position of the Iowa precinct caucuses in the presidential selection process, and to do that, he believe party leaders should retool the approach in a way that welcomes all candidates and gives Republicans in all parts of the state an opportunity to participate.
A.J. Spiker, chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa, issued a statement Monday regarding the governor’s comments and the future of the Ames straw poll saying “Whether or not to have the Iowa Straw Poll is a matter that will be decided in 2015 by the State Central Committee and the presidential candidates. Any talk prior to then is simply premature.”
What do you think of Branstad’s proposals? Do you think Iowa’s straw poll is a significant political event that needs to be preserved?
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Not so much a “political” event. It is more like a “religious” event with some political overtones. It is very close to becoming an old time revival . I went once–never again. Every time things like jobs, the economy etc was brought up, the subject got changed to abortion and gay marriage. A person slapped a “One man One women” sticker on me without asking. She looked puzzled when I immediately took it off. Since the Republican party has been divided by Vander Plaats and friends, the straw poll has become totally a religious dog and pony show. Very insignificant.
So, you’re saying on the DEM side they don’t talk about abortion and gay marriage? Sandra Fluke is the poster child for what you seem to be crying about and she got a phone call from B0.
Strange. I can’t see where Tim made any reference to the Democratic party. You, apparently, are not looking for a fact based intellectual discussion. You just want a fight.
Maybe I missed it. Where, exactly, did the discussion of the Iowa Straw Poll’s significance get sidetracked into a discussion of Democratic issues? Oh, there it is, right under the “John Abernathy said:” bit. Way to stay on-topic, John.
But, as long as I’m in the neighborhood anyway…..Ms. Fluke wasn’t talking about “abortion”. She was, however, talking about insurance coverage of women’s health care. If memory serves, the specifics of her concerns would help reduce the number of abortions needed, so it was a bit surprising to see the anti-abortion folks buying into Limbaugh’s tortured rhetoric.
As for Democrats talking about marriage equality…yep, we do. Mostly because the radical regressives like Grifter Bob and his ilk try to usurp the Constitutional Rights of others based only on their own bigotry (which they blame on their ‘god’ instead of simply owning up to the fact that they’re a hateful and delusional bunch)
Why do they (regressives) hate America? Simple. As Bush 43 famously said, they hate our freedoms.
Thanks for passing on your take on the straw poll Tim. I have no knowledge of the event so I was immediately interested. While I accept at face value very little herein when something draws knee jerk reaction from certain folks here it tends to slightly enhance my opinion of the original comment.
There may have been a day when the straw poll provided a meaningful insight into the early thinking of Iowa Republicans. That day is gone. Today, the straw poll is for sale to the candidate who spends the most money. In 2007, Romney spent an enormous amount of money to win the straw poll, but failed to win the caucus or the nomination. In 2011, Bachmann spent a lot of money to win the straw poll and was out of the campaign shortly after that.
Bachmann’s success in 2011 was “the final straw”.
Significant? Yes. Relevant? Not so much. Heck of a good party, though.
I say retain it… it’s a nearly perfect reverse indicator of who the country at large wants to see as their leader. As long as the western Iowa GOP’ers who drive this thing don’t forsake their allegance to Grifter Bob or his successor snakeoil pushers, the straw poll will be around as a great reminder of how accurate a word picture Prof. Bloom painted of this state.
Maybe a more appropriate name would be the “Iowa GOP Zealot’s Poll”.
This is not an event of any great political influence on the national level. In our hypermedia age it does, however, seem to provide early grist for national attention. And that is of some value to ‘flyover state’ Iowa. The caucuses get attention out of proportion to state size or population, and as the general election neared this last time around that attention was further extended when we were somehow anointed with ‘battle ground state’ status. The straw poll should leverage some of that yet further ahead of the caucuses. And to my thinking Iowa leveraging an overblown political influence on the nation as a whole is a good thing; both for us and the rest of us.