Say Anything Blog

As was expected, Mitt Romney won the straw poll. That wasn’t really big news as he was the only top tier candidate in the race. The big news is that Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee took second place with 18 percent. This means a lot for the Huckabee campaign; they have showed that they Huckabee is the top second-tier candidate, and they are now expecting him to be among the front runners because of this achievement. Mike Huckabee’s main rival Sam Brownback came in third with 15 percent, and Tom Tancredo took 4th with a little of 13 percent. Tommy Thompson, who came in 6th, will likely announce his decision to drop out of the race shortly. I also wouldn’t be surprised if Duncan Hunter dropped out after taking 9th place and only receiving 174 votes (a little over 1 percent). Businessman John Cox, often referred to as a third-tier candidate, only mustered 41 votes. Cox probably won’t drop out though, as he had this to say:

“In the straw poll, I think my chances are pretty bad. I’m probably going to be in the bottom somewhere,” said candidate John Cox. Cox said a less-than-stellar showing at the straw poll does not mean he will drop out. “You’re not getting rid of me that easy,” Cox said.

Huckabee is my favorite in the race so far, so I hope the media really picks up on him after this news. Here’s something else that is interesting; Huckabee spent only $58 per vote. His rival Sam Brownback, who was 3 percentage points behind him, spent almost 3 times that amount ($148). Mitt Romney has not yet announced his spending, but experts have said that he spent anywhere from $400 to $1000 per vote. Ron Paul, Tom Tancredo, Sam Brownback, and even 9th place finisher Duncan Hunter raised more money than Huckabee in the first half of the year, but Huckabee still came out on top among them. It really looks like Huckabee’s message is resonating with the people and it shows that he really doesn’t need to outspend his rivals to do good in the polls.