I’ve been away for a few days, but I couldn’t let the fact go by that the surge is working. The Duncan Hunter surge, that is.

California congressman Duncan Hunter won Texas’ first Republican Party Straw Poll on Saturday in a low-turnout event that lacked the top-tier presidential candidates.

Hunter got 534 votes, or 41 percent of the vote. Former Tennessee senator and actor Fred Thompson, who is expected to announce his candidacy next week but was not at the event, came in second with 266 votes, or nearly 21 percent. Texas congressman Ron Paul came in third with 217 votes, or 17 percent.

534 people in Texas are buying what Dunc’s selling. You tell me this man can’t walk into the White House now.

This was actually my favorite part.

Crowd support seemed split between Hunter and Paul, whose supporters waved signs and chanted his name throughout the day. Other candidates attending were Chicago businessman John Cox, who got 10 votes; counterterrorism expert Hugh Cort of Birmingham, Ala., who got three votes; and tool-and-die maker Ray McKinney of Savannah, Ga., with 28 votes.

Ray McKinney is the Tin Cup of this race. He slayed the mighty John Cox dragon. (Seriously, 10? 10 votes?)

Texas, John H. Cox, Polling, Duncan Hunter | 3 Comments »

New numbers from the American Research Group show great promise for the potential presidential campaign of Thompson — no, no, not that Thompson — Fred Thompson.

In what appears to be a desperate attempt to find the ‘next Reagan,’ rank-and-file Republicans may have taken that straight to heart. Thompson, a former senator from Tennessee and “Arthur Branch” on television’s Law & Order, earned shockingly high numbers for a non-candidate. (Doesn’t hurt to blur the line with his character on Law & Order and then position yourself as the tough district attorney-type, does it?)

Fred Thompson goes on television and says he is thinking about running for president and — out of the gate — his numbers shoot up to 12 percent in Iowa and 10 percent in New Hampshire. It took former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney weeks to crack double digits in most polls.

Thompson passed Romney and non-candidate former Speaker Newt Gingrich in the crucial Iowa, and nipping at Newt’s rear in New Hampshire.

Rudy Giuliani, former New York City mayor, holds a ten point lead in Texas, but ties Arizona Senator John McCain in Iowa and trails McCain in New Hampshire by four points.

Arkansas, Texas, Fred Thompson, New Hampshire, Iowa | 9 Comments »