Iowa GOP chair won’t rule out 2015 straw poll

JOHNSTON - State Republican Party Chairman Jeff Kaufmann can't say whether there will be a seventh Iowa GOP Straw Poll next summer, but he's promising the party will host a major event to highlight potential 2016 presidential candidates.

'I don't know what that event will look like, but there is going to be a party event in the summer of 2015,” Kaufmann said Friday during taping of Iowa Public Television's 'Iowa Press”.

Described as a cross between a political convention and a county fair, the straw poll started in 1979 gives Iowa voters a chance to meet potential presidential candidates. It also gives candidates an opportunity to measure their support among party activists in the state that hosts the first-in-the-nation precinct caucuses.

Critics have argued the results don't accurately reflect the sentiments of Iowa Republicans, but only the most ardent activists. In 2011, Minnesota U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann won the straw poll, but finished sixth in the precinct caucuses five months later.

That prompted Gov. Terry Branstad to call for an end to the poll.

'I think the straw poll has outlived its usefulness,” Gov. Terry Branstad said after the 2012 election. 'It has been a great fundraiser for the party but I think its days are over.”

So recommending that the party continue the 33-year-old straw poll would put Kaufmann at odds with the man who put him in his leadership role. Differences with the governor over the poll and other issues led to former GOP Chairman A.J. Spiker's midterm departure and Kaufmann's installation two months ago.

Kaufmann sought to minimize the governor's opposition to the poll, saying Branstad was just 'thinking out loud.”

The governor, he said, doesn't necessarily oppose continuing the straw poll.

Democrats, according to state party chairman, Scott Brennan, 'are not fans of the straw poll.”

'I don't think it's terribly helpful” in terms of maintaining Iowa's leadoff position in the presidential nominating process, 'which is one reason we don't have one,” Brennan said.

No decision on the straw poll will be made until after the November election, Kaufmann said. Then he'll look at options including modifying it or replacing it with something new.

'I'll repeat, I cannot see a summer of 2015 without an event that highlights our diverse issues and our diverse candidates,” Kaufmann said.

Iowa Press can be seen on IPTV at 7:30 p.m. Friday and noon Sunday, at 8:30 a.m. Saturday on IPTV World and online at www.iptv.org beginning Friday evening.