Did Romney Or Huckabee Win Value Voters Straw Poll?
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election
Technically, Romney won the straw poll, but as Politico points out…
[...] it turns out that the 5,775-vote total included thousands of people who had voted online, and could have become eligible by paying as little as $1 to join FRC Action, the legislative action arm of Family Research Council.Although the audience at the Washington Hilton was not told, the crowd favorite among the 952 attendees who voted in person turned out to be Huckabee by a mile. He got 51 percent of the in-person votes, compared to just 10 percent for Mitt Romney.
This led one rival to suggest the headline, “Romney Win$ Straw Poll.â€
This meme hung around Kerry’s neck in 2004 and it’s hanging around Romney’s now. What’s with Massachusetts politicians?
The fallout of all this is it could help vault Huckabee even more into the spotlight. But the more and more I think about it, I really think Huck’s appeal will be severely limited after the 8 years of evangelical politicking the Bush administration has brought us. The only person the social conservatives could tap then who has a shot is Ron Paul, but I don’t know if the mainstream will allow that to happen.
So does this predict bad times for the Repubs in 2008? Well, yes and no. Because there’s always the Hillary factor, and if Dems anoint her the heir apparent look for the Republicans to surge off of Hill’s high negatives. She may ultimately win, but it’ll be a partisan bloodbath and exactly the opposite of what this country needs right now.
Interesting times ahead…
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October 21st, 2007 at 2:27 pm
Talk about skewing the vote results!
There are three facts that are being left out that spins the story.
The on site voting polls were closed down after Romney’s speech and opened back up after Huckabee’s speech the next day. That means those who came to support and listen to Huckabee were able to vote on site. Those who came to listen to and support Romney the day before were not.
There were many more attendees at the event than voted on site. A lot of folks who attended voted online with their laptops and other electronic hand helds. The non-progressive folks waited in line to vote.
The organization that sent out the emails urging people to vote online was the community “Evangelicals for Mitt”. Romney’s own campaign did not do that, duh he has an 80,000 donor base, if he had solicited online votes the would have blitzed the online voting.
October 21st, 2007 at 3:10 pm
It’s also important to note that a Romney staffer sent out an email to his mailing list advising people to donate $1 to register and vote for Romney in the straw poll online. At least he didn’t buy it directly this time…
October 21st, 2007 at 3:37 pm
Romney continues to buy his way through this race, American doesn’t need a CEO.. we need a President who can be trusted. Say no to Rudy, Romney and Hillary!!
October 21st, 2007 at 4:11 pm
One of the main things missed by reports on the Values Voter Straw Poll was the dismal performance by Fred Thompson. Christian conservatives were supposed to be his base. If he can’t get people to support him in the Values Voter Straw Poll, his prospect for a presidential election is dismal.
October 21st, 2007 at 4:15 pm
Justin, this is a non-story. Mitt won this straw poll according to the rules that the FRC established. If they had said that voters needed to be there in person then more would have shown up for Mitt. It just shows they are a little more savy when it comes to saving transportation money.
The real story here is that someone who has been challenged by the religious right, because of his Mormon religion, has been embraced by a majority of them.
Now…. rewrite your story.
October 21st, 2007 at 4:20 pm
I am on Romney’s email list and I didn’t get this supposed email encouraging me to vote.
October 21st, 2007 at 7:11 pm
Too much spin on this issue by the losers. Both Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee encouraged their supporters to vote online, Gov. Huckabee as late as October 10th on his website.
The point was to win support of those qualified to vote. The conference sponsor opened voting by its members in August. The campaigns used various methods to encourage votes in their direction. And two unlikely candidates were the surprising benficiaries. Huckabee because he has limited support in the national polls. Romney because of the theological friction between Mormons and Evangelicals.
But we also learned much about those respective campaigns’ ability to engage a core constituency of the Republican party. You must admire the Romney team’s understanding how to get done what needs to be done. And you cannot deny the natural affection of Christian conservatives for one of their own. Both speak well to the ability of both candidates to bring their message to the people.
BTW, on a slightly humorous note, next year let’s hold this event in the Mormon Tabernacle and then count the onsite vote.
October 21st, 2007 at 7:57 pm
Romney is a good guy that has earned some money.
Many that have heard him speak about Family, Strong Military
and strong Economy love what he has to say. It is not
even about the money, but there are some who want to continue
to punish him for having money that he earned.
Why is that? Lets get down to his values and message.
October 22nd, 2007 at 12:38 am
Huckabee doesn’t seem to be garner the financial backing needed to compete in the general election. The only GOPs able to contend are Guiliani, Thompson, and Paul. Romney apparently is 8 million in debt and McCain is virtually broke! As for the polling, I was there. Many of the people there were upset about Romney willing because they don’t consider to represent their base. They were really upset!! However, many seemed to like Paul and Huckabee, although they thought Paul talked a bit over their head with the monetary issue. They were more focused on family values and God, which of course Huckabee as a minster is going tap into by saying GOD and the BIBLE several times. The author is also right that the voting opened right after Huckabee spoke!
October 22nd, 2007 at 11:17 am
I found the following points interesting and helpful
Reader David has a good point:
The math is simple for figuring out your online voting dilemma.
A = Number of total votes on site
B = Number of conference attendees
C = Number of conference attendees who voted online
B – A = C
I can’t find the total number of attendees, but the other stat (A) is easy to find. And FRC Action conference people may be able to tell you how many conference attendees voted (including those who voted online). Find the stats, do the math and you can see how many of the people who were with you this weekend actually voted for Mitt (some on line, some standing In the line).
Well, (B) is about 2500 and (A) is about 1000. That leaves 1500 folks–60 percent of the attendees–who either didn’t bother to vote or did so online.
October 22nd, 2007 at 2:57 pm
Why isn’t anyone talking about the text message poll from Fox’s Presidential debate last night? Huckabee blew away Romney….I hear the Romney’s peoples arguments….but there is something very strange about the results at the FRC conference debate.
October 23rd, 2007 at 10:31 am
Our family is writing this up to tell of what happened to us on the value voters debate. We are very frustrated given my disabled wife was not allowed to vote and had no other way to be represented!
FRC action leadership sits on knowledge of false results from its “value voters debate poll” due to online vote blocking
*********************************************************
The FRC action committee is sitting on the knowledge from phone calls they had Friday and Monday to their offices that their online poll was blocking
voters from voting. For christians and value voters that could not attend their DC meetings, many of their votes were blocked putting into question the results from this meeting. These people who maybe too busy,elderly/disabled, or to poor to attend the DC meeting appear to have have
been disenfranchised. Voters calling on Friday and Monday notified the FRC
action group that there votes were denied when they tried to vote online.
FRC action representatives seemed genuine in saying they realize that this
happened and that there was a skeleton crew managing the office. It truly
was an accident they wanted the public to know. But they dont understand
why as of yet this happened but have notified their leadership of the problem.
With the christian base split geographically across the country the longer this brews the worse of a problem it could be.
With so much distrust by the public on polls, electioneering even by the media to get a certain groups “right” candidate into washington,this is not sitting well with the groups who already say as conservatives they feel betrayed.
The question is how long will the FRC and Tony Perkins sit on these facts?
What benefit does it have to not immediately notify the public that a revote is needed.
Is the FRC gaining something or their leadership by letting these false advertising results stay in the media for a while?
It is well known that Romney has strong problems because of his mormon faith with the base. Huckabee is hated and distrusted by value voters who faught day and night for what they viewed as supported overthrow of our
nation and values under the guise of the McCain/Kennedy/Bush illegal immigration and amnesty bills passage. Huckabee at the time was a STRONG
supporter of the bill and has been back tracking ever since the public outcry. He was an even stronger fighter for the Kennedy/Bush/Mccain immigration creed in Arkansas. He faught against laws willing as was oh so willing with that Huckabee tongue of his to slander
other christian representatives to win his arguements,slandering these representatives and calling them racists, supported his biggest campaign sponsor tyson foods and the hispanic lobbist groups and mexico foothold in arkansas. He is known to try whatever opportunistic tacticts he feels will get him to his goals and he can get away with. Too bad for Huckabee.
Will the FRC action group chance dividing and fracturing the Christian base by delaying on notifying the public that their Polls were broken?
Will they do the right thing and redo the online polls to be fair to all those that wanted to vote in the value voters debate?