The Illinois GOP decided to get into the straw poll act today at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield. The turnout was low according to observers but the results were a little surprising to me.
The Illinois GOP decided to hold a straw poll today at the Illinois State Fair. It was done on what is known as Republican Day at the Fair. The Democrats came together yesterday, and that is another entire diary all by itself, and the Repubs had the fair today. The rsults were somewhat of a surprise to me. They were as follows:
Percents...
Romney 40
Thompson 20
Paul 19
Rudy 11
McCain 4
Huckabee 3
People who were there reported that Romney bused a bunch of people in. His finish was not a shock to me. But Thompson, who reportedly had no organized effort ther, came in a strong second. Also, I was amazed at the support for Ron Paul. The reports from the fair indicate that he had a lot of young people there to back him. But for him to finish ahead of Rudy was unexpected, at least by me. Of course, poor John McCain just keeps falling lower and lower. I still remeber when he was easily winning in the polls here. Huckabee actually got 3% which is more than I have seen in any Illinois poll.
I still think that Rudy will do well in Illinois. Most Repubs here are moderate and he seems to fit that image better than the others. But, the right wingers do get out and vote in the primary and that will be good news for Huckabee and Romney.