I am suprised by this. Supposedly CPAC is where the hard core conservatives rule, but Romney, the supposed liberal in the group of those remaining won.
Last year, Ron Paul won, the most fiscally conservative and this year he came in second place. Santorum & Gingrich didn't even score 20%
Anyone have any guesses why Romney won? Are the CPAC people more concerned about beating Obama than getting a true conservative nominated?
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
After finishing second to Mitt Romney in a straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., presidential candidate Rick Santorum insinuated on Sunday that Romney had gamed the vote. “I don’t try to rig straw polls,” Santorum sniped. How, exactly, does a candidate rig a straw poll?
By paying for his supporters to attend. Straw polls, by definition, are nonbinding, so they have fewer rules than do real elections. And unlike opinion polls conducted by national organizations such as Gallup and Pew Research, a straw poll isn’t supposed to be a random sample of the population. Instead, those polled at events such as CPAC and the Ames Straw Poll are simply the people who happen to show up. That means the candidate who turns out the largest number of backers will win. One easy way to get out the straw vote is to buy up a bunch of tickets, then hand them out for free to your supporters. Paying for their transportation to the event can’t hurt. And wining and dining them once they’re there is always a nice touch. Since the CPAC straw poll typically involves about 3,500 people, you might only need to pay for a few hundred voters to tilt the poll in your favor.
Rigging, however, is in the eye of the beholder—usually the loser. “Buying” might be a better word. Straw poll rules vary, but in the case of CPAC and other major events, there’s nothing to prevent a candidate from shelling out cash to gin up support. In fact, that often works to the advantage of the organization running the poll, since it means more people attend the event.
I had heard a little bit about Romney bringing voters in, very interesting.
The Ames straw poll is famous for the candiates buying the participants food even. Guess Michelle Bachman's corn dogs were better then Pawlenty's apple fritters.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
