Ron Paul surprises party establishment by winning Idaho GOP straw poll in Garden City

Despite a speech from U.S. Sen. Jim Risch backing Mitt Romney, Rep. Ron Paul won Friday’s pay-to-play vote. Paul’s surrogate was Washington state Rep. Matt Shea of Spokane Valley.

How strong a win? The former Libertarian got 43 percent (173 votes) to the former Massachusetts governor’s 34 percent (135). Trailing them were Newt Gingrich with 12 percent (47 votes), Rick Santorum at 10 percent (40) and Jon Huntsman with 1 percent (4). A total of 399 people from across Idaho participated. Rick Perry's campaign asked not to be included on the straw poll ballot.

What’s it mean? It cost $30 to participate, and party officials cautioned against making too much of the result. The poll was a party fundraiser held at the Riverside Hotel in Garden City.

Whoops of joy: Paulies were jubilant. “It feels so good,” said Chris MacCloud of Meridian. “Just a lot of hard work, time and energy.”

www.idahostatesman.com...=latest

Idaho: either smarter or less corrupt than Iowa.

Good news!

Lots of Paul supporters in Idaho. He got the largest percentage of votes in Idaho of any state in 2008 and is even more popular now and lots of activists. Still the Idaho GOP establishment are fighting against him but it appears their days are numbered hopefully.

reply to post by TrueAmerican


well thats cool , and im a big Ron Paul supporter but....

To be honest, I use to live in Kuna Idaho........

Winning a Straw Poll in Garden City, which is basically a suburb of boise(barely even that actually) isnt saying much.......

I hope his numbers continue to climb tho, as people get more and more informed

Originally posted by ManBehindTheMask
reply to post by TrueAmerican

 

well thats cool , and im a big Ron Paul supporter but....

To be honest, I use to live in Kuna Idaho........

Winning a Straw Poll in Garden City, which is basically a suburb of boise(barely even that actually) isnt saying much.......

I hope his numbers continue to climb tho, as people get more and more informed

Actually it means a lot since it was the straw poll for the entire GOP state central committee of Idaho The location was just the venue they held it at.