Giuliani and McCain Ditch Iowa Straw Poll
The August Iowa straw poll in Ames lost a lot of luster with word that Rudy Giuliani and Sen. John McCain won’t be working to win it:
Republican presidential candidates Rudy Giuliani and John McCain both plan to skip the Ames straw poll in August, their campaigns said today.
The former New York mayor first announced his decision this morning. A few hours later, the McCain campaign said the Arizona senator also would skip the event.
Both candidates said they would still compete to win the leadoff Iowa caucuses, a gamble on a “non-traditional” caucus campaign and a first for Iowa.
“In light of today’s news, it is clear that the Ames Straw Poll will not be a meaningful test of the leading candidates’ organizational abilities, so we have decided to forgo our participation in the event,” McCain campaign manager Terry Nelson said.
“John McCain has built a solid grassroots organization in Iowa and intends to win the state’s caucuses,” Nelson added.
The decision closer to setting the table for the high-profile early Iowa test, albeit without the party’s national front-runners taking part.
“We’ve made a decision as a campaign not to play in any straw polls this year, most notably, obviously, the Ames straw poll,” Giuliani’s national campaign manager Mike DuHaime said in a Des Moines Register interview today.
“We are 100 percent committed to winning the Iowa caucuses. We’re going to take the resources that would have been spent in the straw poll and we’re going to dedicate all of them toward organizing for the January caucuses,” DuHaime said.
Although most national polls show Giuliani, the former New York mayor, ahead of his GOP rivals, recent Iowa surveys of likely GOP caucusgoers show he has slipped from the top spot in Iowa.
The straw poll is expected to draw tens of thousands of Iowa GOP activists to Hilton Coliseum at Iowa State University on Aug. 11, and serve as an organizational dry run for candidates competing in the January caucuses.
I have to agree with Brian at Iowa Voice that this is a win for Mitt Romney. He’s organizing effectively and has an early lead. Camp Romney is taking the Giuliani and McCain news as victories:
Boston, MA – Today, Romney for President spokesman Kevin Madden issued the following statement on the Ames Straw Poll:
“Governor Romney has put in the time, built the organization and communicated his message to the voters of Iowa. It’s a message focused on bringing conservative change to Washington, and it is resonating with Iowa voters because it matches his record of accomplishment as governor.
“Our plan all along has been to play in the Iowa straw poll, and that hasn’t changed. Campaigns that have decided to abandon Ames are likely doing so out of a recognition that their organizations are outmatched and their message falls flat with Republican voters in Iowa.
“It looks as if we just beat those campaigns in Iowa two months earlier than we had planned on beating them.”
David Yepsen will still be at the straw poll but doesn’t mind that it’s importance has been diminished.
As for Tommy Thompson who’s put so much weight on the straw poll he has a better chance to win, but a victory wouldn’t be as significant. It might let him last past August.
“McCain Follows Giuliani in Skipping Iowa Straw Poll“
[...] Jun 7th, 2007 by mvdg McCain and Giuliani have decided to skip the Iowa straw poll. Polls indicated that Mitt Romney was leading in Iowa, quite easily. I agree with the Iowa Voice and Sean Hackbarth that this is a victory for Romney, at least in so far that McCain and Giuliani probably realize that they can’t win in Iowa because Romney has a much better organization there. [...]