Hopefuls will settle for runner-up in straw poll

Up to 40,000 Iowa
Republicans are expected to attend today’s event.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Rare is the politician who covets a second-place finish, but runner-up looks pretty good right now to Republican presidential hopefuls Mike Huckabee and Sam Brownback.

Eclipsed so far by better-financed rivals, the two are criticizing Mitt Romney’s conservative credentials aggressively in the run-up to today’s Iowa straw poll.

Their hope is not so much to defeat Romney as it is to deny him an overwhelming victory. Both men calculate that a close second would damage the former Massachusetts governor and allow the runner-up to emerge as the favorite of social conservatives who will play an important role in the nominating campaign.

Only one, at most, can claim that mantle.

“This is a chance to break out,” says Brownback, a 50-year-old Kansas senator who is an outspoken foe of abortion, embryonic stem-cell research and same-sex marriage. “We can finally start getting the national media.”

Huckabee, a 51-year-old Southern Baptist minister and former Arkansas governor, said, “We want to do well to show that the momentum continues to build.”

Results matter

Although neither would concede that a poor showing would end their presidential hopes, others say it would be difficult to survive.

“I think there will be sort of a natural realignment after the straw poll,” said veteran Republican strategist Bob Haus, who is not affiliated with any candidate. “One of them will emerge as a clear favorite and start to coalesce this constituency.”

Ironically, Brownback and Huckabee have an opportunity because better-known rivals, Sen. John McCain, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Sen. Fred Thompson, decided not to compete in the straw poll.

The straw poll, expected to raise at least $1 million for the Iowa Republican Party, is expensive for candidates, who are charged a hefty fee for space at the event and usually cover the $35 per person cost for supporters to participate.

The event and primaries

Up to 40,000 Republicans from throughout Iowa are expected to travel to the Iowa State University campus in Ames for the daylong event. The candidates will bus in many GOP voters, who will listen to speeches, dine on free meals and cast their ballot after showing Iowa identification and dipping their thumb into ink to ensure they only vote once.

Iowa Gov. Chet Culver said Friday there’s one thing that trumps presidential politics even in Iowa — Christmas.

Amid the deafening talk about states moving up their primaries and caucuses, Culver told reporters that Iowa’s leadoff caucuses should be held in January 2008, not December as some have suggested.

“In this state, we’re going to still have Christmas,” the Democratic governor said at a news conference.