Predictably, Rand Paul won the CPAC Straw Poll for the third straight year. That isn’t proof that Sen. Paul is a top tier candidate. It’s proof that he’s inherited his father’s supporters. By the time the South Carolina Primary rolls around, he’ll pretty much be an afterthought in the GOP presidential race. Here are the top 5 finishers:
Noticeably missing from the ranks of frontrunners is Chris Christie:
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, considered a top-flight candidate since the 2012 presidential elections, finished last with 2.8 percent of the vote.
To put that in perspective, Christie finished behind such juggernauts as Donald Trump, Carly Fiorina and Rick Santorum.
The story, though, is Gov. Walker’s strong second-place finish. Nobody thought he’d dethrone Rand Paul as the straw poll winner. Finishing with 21% is impressive, though I can’t say it’s totally unexpected. Here’s what the Washington Times is reporting:
Mr. Walker saw the biggest surge in this year’s poll, rising from sixth place and 7 percent last year to reach 21.4 percent this year. That was nearly twice the 11.5 percent Mr. Cruz garnered, about the same as his showing last year.
This result is interesting:
When first and second choice preferences were combined, Mr. Paul and Mr. Walker were even closer, with 41.5 percent of respondents listing Mr. Paul as in their top two, and 40.8 percent listing Mr. Walker. Mr. Cruz and Mr. Carson trailed with little more than half that support.
Here’s another interesting tidbit of information:
It sounds like Jeb Bush’s supporters are taking CPAC pretty seriously this year. Emails provided to Slate show that backers of the former Florida governor are busing supporters from downtown Washington D.C. to CPAC in National Harbor, Maryland, and organizing to get them day passes into the event.
One of the emails that went out this morning was from Fritz Brogan, a former advance man for then-President George W. Bush who (per the Washington Post) co-hosted a fundraiser for Jeb’s Right to Rise PAC earlier this month. A Bush insider confirmed to Slate that Bush’s Right to Rise PAC is helping organize the transportation.
“We strongly recommend arriving as early as possible to get a seat,” wrote Brogan in an email sent to undisclosed recipients. “Our ‘Early Rise’ team will be there at 7:30am onward helping reserve seats- if you want to join the early team, let me know.” Brogan wrote that there were still available seats on buses leaving from K Street and Georgetown at noon on Friday to get to the event in time for Bush’s talk.
Two things are important about this. First, Jeb’s team went all-in to impress at CPAC with the hope of doing better than expected. That didn’t happen. The other important thing about this is that there aren’t many people from K Street and Georgetown available to vote in the New Hampshire or South Carolina primaries. If this lackluster finish doesn’t give Team Jeb some gray hairs, then they aren’t paying attention.
Technorati: Rand Paul, CPAC Straw Poll, Scott Walker, Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Carly Fiorina, Donald Trump, Rick Santorum, Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, Republicans, Election 2016
