Iowa Straw Poll: Three Unlikely Winners

The Republican Party of Iowa held its heralded straw poll on Saturday. As expected Mitt Romney was declared the winner after garnering 31% of the 14,203 votes cast.

Romney's win, however, is not considered a major boost to the campaign of the former Massachusetts governor. Romney had visited the state no less than 17 times and spend a ton of money to bring his supporters to the polls.

The real story of this straw poll is that there were three unlikely winners.

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee came in 2nd in spite of the fact that he spent very little money and has almost no presence on the Internet. Huckabee received 18.1% of the vote.

The real surprise of the day was that U.S. Congressman Tom Tancredo came in 4th with 13.7% of the vote. Under normal circumstances a 4th place finish would not be considered significant. With Tancredo, however, such a feat is a major step forward in his campaign.

Tancredo was considered the darkest horse of the dark horses in the Republican bid for the Presidential nomination. His first debate performance, to say the least, was unimpressive.

Yet the Colorado Congressman has gradually improved in his ability to field questions in these forums, and he can deliver a rousing speech. Thus, the dark horse candidate who was having trouble reaching 1 or 2 percent in polling numbers received a double-digit percentage of the vote in Iowa.

The third unlikely winner in the contest was Fred Thompson. Although the former U.S. Senator from Tennessee did not visit the state prior to the straw poll, and was not even formally listed on the ballot, Thompson still managed to to come in 7th, ahead of both Rudy Giuliani and John McCain.

Giuliani and McCain decided to skip the event.

Sam Brownback's standing in the poll was not devastating by any stretch of the imagination, but it is almost certain the candidate was not pleased with his 3rd place finish. Although the Kansas Senator received 15.3% of the vote, political observers expected Brownback to do much better.

Huckabee's 2nd place finish probably surprised the Brownback campaign as much as it did Huckabee himself.

Although Tommy Thompson came in 6th with 7.3% of the vote, campaign observers expect the candidate to drop out of the race. Thompson had stated prior to the Iowa event that unless he finished in the top three in Iowa he would announce his withdrawal.

Participation in the poll was lower than expected. GOP voters indicated that this was due to their desire for another candidate, such as Fred Thompson, who has not yet announced. Others stated that because front-runners Giuliani and McCain decided to skip this event, many of the GOP faithful stayed home.

That remains to be seen. A sizeable number of Republicans across the board in all 50 states indicate they want another choice besides the current slate of candidates.

The question is, will Fred Thompson fit the bill?