The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) chose former Massachusetts Governor, Mitt Romney as the winner in their straw poll. This was Romney’s third win in the non-scientific poll.

Mitt Romney 25





Mitt Romney (Photo)


Here are the official votes:

Mitt Romney – 20 percent
Bobby Jindal, Louisiana governor – 14 percent
Sarah Palin, Alaska Governor – 13 percent
Ron Paul, Texas Representative – 13 percent
Newt Gingrich, former Speaker – 10 percent, former Mike Huckabee, Arkansas Governor – 7 percent
Mark Sanford, South Carolina Governor – 4 percent
Rudy Guiliani, former New York Mayor – 3 percent
Tim Pawlenty, Minnesota Governor – 2 percent
Charlie Christ, Florida Governor – 1 percent
Undecided – 9 percent

Gingrich, Huckabee, Romney, Pawlenty, Sanford and Paul were speakers.

Support for both Jindal and Palin was seen as somewhat diluted as they did not attend. Jindal, Giuliani and Crist were also not present.

Over 1700 people participated in the straw poll. Fifty-seven percent of voters were between the ages of 18 and 25.

In 2007, John McCain came in fifth in the straw poll, behind Romney’s first place. In 2008, Romney again edged out the win over a second place McCain, but by then, the 2008 Presidential race was on, and Romney had bowed out of the race a few days earlier.

While I didn’t hear it myself, some reports are saying Crist was publically “ridiculed” for “being Barack Obama’s favorite Republican.” The Florida Governor was a high-profile supporter of Obama’s death-to-stimulus bill.

You can read more about CPAC here, as well as more about one of the star attractions, political prodigy, Jonathan Krohn.

The video below demonstrates the prevailing spirit at CPAC this year. Bay Buchanan warns about the challenges ahead for Republicans…scolding for the loss of trust at the hands of Republican leadership, and admonishing that “leadership” will not be found in Washington D.C.

CPAC (Video)