Surprise: McCain Wins S.C. Straw Poll, Romney Tops at CPAC

In a follow-up to the results thread from Thursday, Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) edged out former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani in the Spartanburg, S.C. Straw Poll by two votes in a surprise late surge. South Carolina ‘08 has the results.

John McCain: 164
Rudy Giuliani: 162
Duncan Hunter: 158
Sam Brownback: 85
Mitt Romney: 80
Mike Huckabee: 21

McCain picked up 78 votes since Thursday’s thread with Giuliani adding 39.

In Washington, D.C., former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney bought his way to the top in the Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll. Jonathan Martin of The Politico reports:

Thanks to the support of hundreds of college students, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won the CPAC straw poll. Romney took 21% of the vote to former New York Mayor Rudy Giuilani’s 17%. Sen. Sam Brownback came in third with 15%, ahead of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s 14%. Sen. John McCain, the only GOP contender to not address the conference, took 12%. 1,705 votes were cast, many of them by College Republicans whose registration and in some cases travel and lodging was footed by Romney’s camp. [emphasis added]

More statistical analysis from Martin:

Giuliani spokeswoman Maria Comella responds that “It’s clear Mayor Giuliani’s proven record of results, decisive leadership and optimistic vision is resonating with Republicans.” I should’ve noted further up, btw, that in the “combined” question — where voters’ first and second choices were added together — Giuliani came out on top with 34% of the vote. Romney and Gingrich each took 30%, Brownback had 24% and McCain 20%. [misspelling fixed from original]

Posted by Matt Ortega
Saturday, March 3, 2007 at 7:32 pm

3 Responses to “Surprise: McCain Wins S.C. Straw Poll, Romney Tops at CPAC”

I just posted more results from the CPAC straw poll in the post above this. In short: Romney did not win the straw poll, Giuliani did. The first place votes results were only a third of the results. When all votes were tallied, as with MyDD which votes in multiple rounds, Giuliani had the most votes.

Left by Matt Browner Hamlin
March 4, 2007 at 5:23am

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