Herman Cain wins Straw Poll for President at this Weekend's Republican Convention

Herman Cain






In another sign that the Tea Party movement remains an important if not controlling component of Republican Party activism in Wisconsin, Herman Cain, a Tea Party favorite nationally, was the clear winner of the Presidential straw poll taken by Politifacts.com at this weekend's GOP convention at The Wilderness Resort in Wisconsin Dells.  Here are the vote totals:

Herman Cain - 80
Mitch Daniels - 50
Tim Pawlenty - 35
Michele Bachmann - 31
Mitt Romney - 31
Sarah Palin - 22
Rick Santorum - 11
Newt Gingrich - 10
Ron Paul - 9
Jon Huntsman - 3
Gary Johnson - 2
Rand Paul - 2
Write-ins - 15
- Paul Ryan - 7
- Rick Perry - 3
- Allen West - 2
- Scott Walker, Mike Huckabee, Chris Christie - 1 each

Mr. Cain, who spoke at the February 19 Tea Party rally on the Capitol Square, calls himself a dark-horse candidate, which is an amusing touch.  After hearing Cain participate in the recent Republican presidential debate in South Carolina, Rush Limbaugh said he felt like he was listening to himself.  Cain is in favor of a national sales tax in place of a progressive income tax.  He favors putting God back into public schools, but otherwise marginalizing public education in the same way Governor Walker wants to.  He would exclude Muslims from judicial appointments.  He would dismantle Health Care Reform and get rid of the new regulations on the banks and Wall Street firms. He is opposed to abortion and gay marriage and civil unions.  Andrew Breitbart wants to see him run for president and shared the podium with him on February 19.  Breitbart, who apparently fancies himself a plain-speaking tough guy, then came back to Wisconsin for the April 16 Tea Party rally where he told union supporting counter-rallyers to "Go to Hell."

In a poll in New Hampshire released today by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, Herman Cain fared less well than he did in Wisconsin Dells.  Here are the results in New Hampshire:

Romney  32%
Paul  9%
Gingrich  6%
Giuliani  6%
Palin  5%
Bachmann  4%
Cain  4%
Daniels  4%
Huntsman  4%
Pawlenty  4%
Santorum  2%  

But most of those NH Republicans are probably RINO's, not true Republicans like Tea Party members.

I had previously commented that a picture of Jeff Fitzgerald addressing the convention, taken from behind the podium, showed a pretty sparse crowd.  I questioned the press reports that there were a thousand attendees based on the size of the crowd for Fitzgerald's speech on Saturday.

Politifacts blog on the convention says:

The RPW says as of about 10 a.m. roughly 1,020 have registered at the convention.

Nevertheless, I have to wonder why less than one third of the folks reportedly registered for the convention bothered to vote in the Presidential straw poll.

Participation in the straw poll for a candidate to succeed Herb Kohl was even lighter, with only 291 attendees voting,  The results of that poll were:

Ted Kanavas - 73
Tommy Thompson - 61
J.B. Van Hollen - 40
Mark Neumann - 33
Tim Michels - 24
Rebecca Kleefisch - 15
Scott Fitzgerald - 14
Mark Green - 13
Jeff Fitzgerald - 10
Tim Sullivan - 3

So perhaps Tommy is viewed as either too liberal or too long in the tooth.