Six Republican presidential hopefuls competed yesterday in the Iowa straw poll, an unofficial test of campaign strength that will share the stage this year with the launch of Texas Governor Rick Perry’s White House run.
The two events, coming less than six months before Iowa residents hold the first presidential nominating contest, promise to reshape the Republican race for the nomination to challenge US President Barack Obama next year.
Perry was to announce his presidential bid in South Carolina, another state with an early nominating contest, and is expected to immediately vault into the top tier of contenders along with the front-runner, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. Perry visits Iowa today.
The straw poll, a nonbinding mock election, traditionally winnows the field of poor performers and boosts those who do better than expected. This year, struggling former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty is fighting for survival as his rival, US Representative Michele Bachmann tries to keep her recent momentum alive.
Romney will be on the ballot, but chose not to participate after winning the straw poll in 2007. He later lost the Iowa caucuses to Mike Huckabee, who rode the momentum he generated with a surprise second-place straw poll finish.
“It’s an event that in-and-of-itself is meaningless, but can have a tremendous political impact,” said Dennis Goldford, a political scientist at Drake University in Des Moines. “It has always had the role of eliminating the weak and thinning out the field.”
The poll is a fund-raiser for the state party and creates a carnival atmosphere around Iowa State University’s basketball arena, where candidates entice supporters with big-tent entertainment, free food and speeches.
Any Iowa resident over 18 can show up and participate, with many allowing a candidate to buy their US$30 ticket. Candidates organize buses to haul in supporters from around the state in a warmup for the organizational effort needed in the caucuses.
Not all of the candidates are fans of the event. Former Alaskan governor Sarah Palin, the 2008 vice presidential nominee who is still flirting with a White House run, questioned its validity during a visit to the Iowa state fair on Friday.
“It’s not always the tell-tale sign of what the electorate is feeling,” Palin said of the poll. “It’s who happens to show up and has the time and energy to spend that day for their particular candidate.”
Pawlenty and Bachmann have the most at risk. They are both vying for the support of the social conservatives who dominate Iowa’s contest, and both need a win in Iowa’s caucuses next year to have a viable path to the nomination.
Bachmann’s appeal to both Tea Party fiscal conservatives and social conservatives has shot her to the top of opinion polls in Iowa, but a flat performance by the Minnesota congresswoman could puncture her early momentum.
Pawlenty is mired in single digits in state and national polls and needs a strong showing to keep his campaign alive. He ripped Bachmann’s record in Congress during a debate on Thursday.
“He’s been trying to say Bachmann is all flash and he can go the distance, but he has had trouble convincing Republicans here of that,” Goldford said.
Pawlenty spokesman Alex Conant refused to discuss how strong a showing was needed to keep Pawlenty viable, but he said he was confident it would show him on the rise.
“We acknowledge that we have to show some movement from the back of the pack to the front,” Conant said.
Four other Republicans — US representatives Ron Paul and Thaddeus McCotter, businessman Herman Cain and former US senator Rick Santorum — also paid the fees and bought tents and speaking time at the event. Romney, along with former House of Representatives speaker Newt Gingrich and former Utah governor Jon Huntsman, did not pay to participate in the straw poll, but will be listed on the ballot.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of