With all the hub-bub flying around about Rudy Giuliani and John McCain dropping out of the Ames straw poll in August, I must point out something that a former prominent Republican official in Iowa told me this week:
The Ames straw poll was always kind of a sham.
Ronda Menke, an associate professor of public relations at Drake University, and a former Iowa G.O.P. chair, said the Ames straw poll has historically been overrated.
"It's such a sham. It's just a fundraiser for the state party, and the national media comes and covers it," Menke said during a panel discussion at Drake University in Des Moines this week.
In 1988, when Pat Robertson was running for president, Menke said Robertson asked the state party to not talk about ticket sales before the event.
It takes tickets to get into the Ames straw poll and vote. So the theory goes, the candidate who buys the most tickets and brings in the most people . . . wins. In other words, if you are willing to drop the big 'Mo, you can produce a good showing.
It may measure organization, but that format certainly doesn't measure passion.
"They bought that straw poll," Menke said of Robertson's campaign.
"And they didn't want the press to know it," she added.
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