State Dem conventions love straw polls during presidential campaign years. It garners press coverage, while their delegates get wined and dined by VIP candidates.
And it's a great fundraising tool, as delegates pay to cast votes.
But the national Democratic Party has waged open war on the practice, arguing the results aren't predictive of anything, while sapping resources from the candidates. (Or something lame like that...)
The national party had a tantrum when Wisconsin staged a straw poll, but several candidates participated anyway. Now, we're seeing the same thing all over again in Florida, as that state's Democratic Party gears up for its own straw poll in December. And given that Florida will probably have no say in the nomination (its primary isn't until March 9), the state party
really wants this straw poll to go forward.
Under pressure from the party hieararchy, all nine candidates signed a letter saying they would boycott the straw poll. Interestingly, the DNC apparently
lied to the candidates to get them to agree to the letter.
Trippi, Dean's campaign manager, said he was told by DNC officials that every campaign had agreed to sign on to the boycott threat except Dean's. Matt Bennett, a spokesman for Clark, said the Clark campaign was given the same pitch by the DNC -- that only Clark remained uncommitted to the boycott.
''This puts all of the campaigns in an awkward position,'' Bennett said, adding that the campaign revoked its signature from the letter Saturday after learning it was misled by a DNC operative.
Way to build trust in the party, McAuliffe and Co. How about a post on Kicking Ass explaining the situation? You owe it to the campaigns and to your supporters.
Back to the straw poll, the boycott is already starting to fray. Dean can officially adhere to the spirit of the boycott while his Florida-based supporters gear up to win the straw poll. One of the many benefits of a decentralized campaign structure. The rest of the candidates can't stand pat and let Dean win another straw poll (he won Wisconsin's). Most of them should cave.
Like Edwards. Eager for a victory to build on his recent momentum, he has already laid the groundwork for
repudiating his boycott.
And to hell with the DNC on this issue. They lied to get the candidates to sign the letter, so that's all the excuse any of those guys need. If they want to compete in the straw poll, then by all means, they should. And I hope they do.
Update: US News' Roger Simon
has more:
Straw polls, in which people cast meaningless votes for president just for the heck of it, have been banned by the party as "potentially divisive." No wonder Democratic stalwart Andrew Cuomo says in his new book that Democratic candidates have become "bloodless, soulless, and clueless." Straw polls are almost always goofy, raucous, and clued in to what people might actually want in a president. Which is reason enough for some candidates to fear them [...]
"Straw polls buy into a focus on a horse-race culture and detract from a debate on real issues," says Josh Wachs, chief operating officer of the Democratic National Committee. "Straw polls are artificial, expensive, and unnecessary."
Sure, straw-poll fans say, but that could describe lots of things in presidential campaigns, including most of the candidates. Besides, straw polls are exciting! [...]
The state central committee will meet on November 16, Maddox says, to vote on whether to hold a straw poll or not. The betting is that candidates like Wesley Clark, who pulled out of Iowa recently, might want a public test of his popularity in Florida and Howard Dean, who has raised enough money to buy Godiva chocolates for everyone in the continental United States, wouldn't mind "wasting" a few dollars there. "Do you think the candidates will all skip a straw poll?" Maddox asks incredulously. "Every dollar or minute of time spent in Florida will pay back dividends in the general election."
The DNC needs to stop trying to make funding decisions for the candidates. They're big boys now. They can decide whether spending time and money in Florida is worth their effort.