Jeff Kaufmann, chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa central committee, speaks at a meeting discussing whether or not the state party should carry on with a presidential straw poll, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2015, at the party headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa. (Photo: AP/The Des Moines Register, Charlie Litchfield)
Party officials say the decades-old Iowa Straw Poll, once a prominent money-maker for the Hawkeye State Republican Party, has been canceled in a vote. The development was almost inevitable considering the lack of interest from declared and potential GOP presidential candidates.
“I’ve said since December that we would only hold a straw poll if the candidates wanted one, and this year that is just not the case,” Jeff Kaufmann, chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa’s State Central Committee said in a statement:
The Ames Straw Poll, as it was officially known, had been held every election cycle since 1979 without a Republican incumbent president, and was once believed to be a serious measurement of a candidate’s electability. However, most recently, it has done nothing but bring in thousands of dollars for the Iowa State Republican Party. The survey, which was really turned into a popularity contest, has failed to pick the candidate that was ultimately nominated since President George W. Bush.
With increasing irrelevance sinking in, three of the Republican presidential hopefuls — beginning with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee — decided not to even participate. The other two are former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.
Kaufmann said in Sept. 2014 that the party will have an event in the summer of 2015. However, he stopped short of saying that it will be the traditional Ames Straw Poll.
