With it being Labor Day weekend this probably escaped notice. But monoblogue-endorsed Presidential candidate Duncan Hunter handily won the Townhall.com Texas Republican Straw Poll with 41% of the vote. Fred Thompson was a distant second. Texas Congressman Ron Paul was what had to be a disappointing third, but that sparked some controversy that you’ll see in the comments to the Townhall.com piece I link to.
So how did a guy who’s polling nationally in the low single digits win? Because he went there to campaign and he sold people on his message, that’s how. In the post-poll analysis, Townhall’s Matt Lewis wrote:
Duncan Hunter is obviously a big winner here. He deserved to win because he showed up — and really worked it. He shook hands with hundreds of folks, and signed lots of autographs (mostly on tee-shirts). I can’t help but believe many of the votes Hunter got were due to his merely showing up and campaigning hard. The question is: Would these votes have also propelled Mike Huckabee to a victory here? We won’t know if this was a huge missed opportunity for Huckabee to keep his momentum going. Hunter took advantage, and for that, I give him kudos. (Emphasis in orginal.)
For the Townhall.com Texas Straw Poll, those allowed to vote were people eligible to be delegates to their state GOP convention. Here in Maryland I guess that would be akin to Central Committee members who attend and vote at our semi-annual state conventions.
This brings up a sidebar with local interest. I know we’re certainly not the state of Texas, but could some lower-tier candidate make a bid to win our upcoming (on September 24th) Wicomico County Republican Straw Poll by showing up? It’s not like they won’t be in Maryland anyway given the proximity of both our chosen date and location to the Morgan State University debate in Baltimore. I’ve sent out an invite to each campaign, and no one has given me a flat no…
Unfortunately, so far almost everyone in the GOP field has a flaw that may affect his electability with some faction of the Republican Party, let alone the general public. Rudy Giuliani is perceived as too liberal on social issues for the Bible Belt wing of the GOP, while Mitt Romney has to answer constant questions about his own religion. John McCain lost front-runner status by being wrong on immigration. Mike Huckabee is cast as a “big-government conservative” in the Bush mold, Ron Paul is wrong on the Long War, and from many accounts Fred Thompson has been too coy about getting in and is less than impressive on the campaign stump. The rest are just seen as being too far down in the polls to make a difference, despite their qualifications.
Sometimes though it just takes one event to create momentum, which is why I’m getting the word out a little more about a Hunter win. To me he’s proven to be the best all-around candidate and I think he deserves your support too.
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