Ron Paul's Landslide Victory in Today's Alabama Straw Poll

by Liberty and Power

I just got back from the Alabama Republican Straw poll. Paul won a crushing 81 percent of the total.

Paul supporters came from all over the state and the party establishment here was overwhelmed and caught completely off guard. This is a wonderful victory, at least it was for me.

This is evidence that Ron's campaign not only has maintained its enthusiasm but has staying power. Here are the results:

Ron Paul - 216 (81%)

Tom Tancredo - 0 (0%)

Sam Brownback - 2 (.75%)

John McCain - 2 (.75%)

Mike Huckabee - 6 (2%)

Rudy Giuliani - 7 (3%)

Fred Dalton Thompson - 9 (3%)

Duncan Hunter - 10 (4%)

Mitt Romney - 14 (5%)

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David T. Beito - 8/19/2007

You are right. The most important fact about the results is that they speak volumes about the lack of enthusiasm for the other candidates. The low showing for Hunter (who made a phone call pitch to the assembly) and Huckabee (is playing to the religious right) was especially surprising.

Bill Woolsey - 8/19/2007

What it means is that the patriot/libertarian coalition that is working for Paul not only dominates the internet but is also in the firt tier when it comes to volunteer driven activity. If Thompson doesn't assign a paid staff member to convince people that he should do well in an Alabama staw poll, it isn't going to happen.

Paul also dominated a staw poll in Strafford County New Hampshire yesterday. The numbers were about the same. ronpaul2008.com

Paul came second in the Georgetown County, SC staw poll (Thompson won.) That was at the end of July. However, there wasn't one Paul supporter from Georgetown County. (One drove up late as we were getting
ready to leave.) Paul's people (like me) drove in from Charleston, Myrtle Beach, and Columbia. Committed volunteers for Paul. It was put together by SC volunteers using the internet.

In SC, Romney is the Christian coaltion candidate (he came in right behind Paul in Georgetown.) A Thompson supporter bought tickets and distributed them to older people in the area where the poll was held (Pawleys Island, a rich enclave of retirees from off in what is a democrat county.)

I think Paul has a volunteer base already competitive with the top tier--in terms of numbers and committment. Well, actually, well beyond them in states like Alabama, as opposed to Iowa, NH, and SC. (Where the other campaigns have paid staff.)

In SC, about 20% of Republican voters are unhappy with Bush and unhappy with the war in Iraq. The 2% to 3% that Paul has in SC polls shows that only 10% of them have been reached by the Paul campaign. Depending how the other camps split the pro-Bush, pro-war vote, Paul can be competitive here in SC. It is first past the post.

Jonathan Dresner - 8/18/2007

I'm disturbed by two things: Fred Thompson got nine votes without even being in the race; the other candidates don't seem to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time, organizationally speaking. How hard could it be to organize a few dozen volunteers to show up even while the Iowa stage is active?

Being the Republican race, I'm not too disturbed, but it does raise some interesting questions about what it means, etc....