The longshot candidate Texas Rep. Ron Paul also outperformed expectations, placing fifth with 1,305 votes, even though the campaign only purchased 800 tickets, according to his spokesman. Paul clearly gathered even more attendees than voters, people like Jeff Molby, a software engineer from the Detroit suburbs, who stopped by the poll on his way to California for a wedding. "My brother and I decided to make a huge road trip out of it," he said. When Paul was asked before the polls closed how he would do, the Libertarian candidate was somewhat circumspect, since only Iowans were allowed to vote in the straw poll. "We'll have to find out if we got anyone from Iowa," he joked.
The most immediate impact is likely to be the exit of former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, who placed sixth with 1,039 votes. Thompson has said repeatedly in recent weeks that he was unlikely to continue the campaign if he did not win or place in the poll. Like Paul, a visible portion of Thompson's supporters, motorcyclists who wore black T-shirts, were from out of state. Whole portions of Thompson's speech to voters Saturday had the whiff of a farewell address. "It's quite an honor to run for president of the United States," Thompson said. [On Sunday night, Thompson announced he was dropping out of the race.] Brownback and Tancredo, meanwhile, are destined to continue their campaigns, having met their own vague benchmarks of placing in the top half of the field. (Rep. Duncan Hunter, R- Calif., who did not seriously contest the poll, bought only 100 or so tickets and tallied 174 votes, ahead of John McCain but behind Fred Thompson's 203 and Rudy Giuliani's 183.)
The impact on Huckabee, meanwhile, will be measured largely in fundraising dollars over the coming weeks. Historically, 85,000 to 105,000 Republicans vote in the Iowa Caucuses, making a few thousand straw poll votes far from determinative on Election Day. But Huckabee told reporters that he is hoping the results Saturday will signal that he is a serious contender to wealthy Republicans. "All those people that told us if we got some traction they'd be with us, well we've got the traction. They should be with us," he said.
If he does get traction in the form of campaign checks, Huckabee is likely to position himself as a candidate who can unite the country, even though he takes more conservative positions than the leading Republican candidates. An ordained Baptist minister, he is vocal about his religious beliefs, unassailably pro-life, a skeptic of evolution and an opponent of gay marriage. He was helped at the straw poll by supporters of Christian home-schooling, and the poll results may mean that Huckabee, at least on Saturday, won the duel with Brownback for evangelical voters, who will loom large in the upcoming caucus. His showing may also reflect his enthusiastic backing of the so-called Fair Tax, which would replace the national income tax with a national sales tax. Fair Taxers were well-represented at the straw poll, even bringing a Fair Tax ferris wheel.
Despite these views, Huckabee packages himself in a largely populist message, which he can deliver with uncommon skill on the stump. On CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday morning, he restated the central thesis of his campaign. "I am one of the few Republican candidates that's having the courage to talk about how we need to really separate ourselves from being the Wall Street Republican crowd. We need to be the Main Street Republican crowd," he said. "We need to quit being a wholly owned subsidiary of the major fund managers on Wall Street and start being more concerned about the people out there in places like Iowa."
Though the straw poll results are largely symbolic, it's a refrain that more Americans may be hearing soon. But not right away. First Huckabee is going back home to Little Rock, Ark., to take some time off. "I am dying to see my dogs," he said Saturday night, after the results were announced. "I haven't seen them in over two weeks. And I hope they can remember me."
About the writer
Michael Scherer is Salon's Washington correspondent. Read his other articles here.
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