Romney First, but Huckabee Biggest Winner from Straw Poll

Cyclone Conservatives has all the on-the-scene coverage of today’s Republican Presidential candidate straw poll in Ames, Iowa. Here are the results as reported on Jonathan Martin’s Politico blog:

1. Mitt Romney, 4516, 31.5%

2. Mike Huckabee, 2587, 18.1

3. Sen. Sam Brownback, 2192, 15.3

4. Tom Tancredo, 1,961, 13.7

5. Ron Paul, 1305, 9.1

6. Tommy Thompson, 1039, 7.3

7. Fred Thompson, 203, 1.4

8. Rudy Giuliani, 183, 1.3

9. Duncan Hunter, 174, 1.2

10. John McCain, 101, 1

11. John Cox, 41, .1

Total Votes
14,302

To the absolute surprise of no one paying attention, Mitt Romney won. But my first glance at the results tells me that his win isn’t impressive enough to give him the clear edge he’s hoping for. But if anyone is hoping for a big bounce of momentum from the early Iowa caucuses, it’s definitely Romney – it’s his to lose.

The other top tier candidates all sidestepped the Ames straw poll. Of the three, Fred Thompson (still the non-candidate candidate) did better than Rudy Giuliani or the tanking campaign of John McCain (who saved himself the embarrassment of finishing behind political nobody John Cox).

The biggest political winner tonight clearly is Mike Huckabee, who will need to keep the momentum going as he angles hard for the vice-presidential slot on next year’s national ticket. Tom Tancredo and Ron Paul look like they’ll hang around for a while longer. But here’s the kicker for me: More than 1,000 people came to Ames to cast a non-binding vote of support for Tommy Thompson? And you thought your Saturday was boring and dreary.

After today, not much changes for me. Mount Virtus is still firmly undecided on whom to support in the Republican presidential primary.