Paul wins Benton County Republicans’ straw poll
Posted on Wednesday, January 23, 2008
BENTONVILLE — A straw poll sponsored Tuesday by the Benton County Republican Committee gave presidential candidate Ron Paul a victory.
The nonbinding vote of some 142 people gave Paul 52 votes, Mitt Romney 35 votes, Mike Huckabee 30 votes, John Mc-Cain 20 votes, Ruddy Giuliani 4 votes and Fred Thompson 1 vote.
Paul supporters in attendance cheered when the vote was announced.
Thompson’s name remained on the ballot, despite the fact that the former Tennessee senator and actor had dropped out of the race earlier on Tuesday.
The other candidates had local stand-ins at the meeting, each of whom spoke on their behalf for three minutes.
Republican County Committee members and members of many GOP political clubs in the county were eligible to vote in the straw poll, as were other Republicans who joined the committee for 2008 at Tuesday’s meeting.
While the straw poll vote was fun and it succeeded in its goal of getting new people involved in the committee and raising money, county committee chairman George Spence said after the vote, he wouldn’t assume Paul will be able to duplicate his 36. 6 percent support in the straw poll when the GOP presidential primary is held Feb. 5.
“ I think it would be wrong to over-interpret this (vote ), ” Spence said.
But Spence emphasized both at the meeting and afterward that he welcomed Paul supporters to the committee. In the crowd of attendees, he saw many new faces and was glad of it, Spence said at the meeting.
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