Iowa GOP Cancels Straw Poll

What would happen if you planned a huge party and none of the guests of honor agreed to show up? Iowa Republican Party leaders faced that dilemma since no one in the GOP’s huge field of presidential hopefuls had agreed to participate in the Iowa Straw Poll — so the event has been cancelled. Iowa G-O-P chairman Jeff Kaufmann met by phone with members of the party’s state central committee early Friday to cancel the event.

“If you do not have candidate interest, you do not have the financial dollars to actually even break even,” Kaufmann said immediately after the decision was made. “…We set the table and they didn’t come to dinner.” It was a unanimous decision, but Kaufmann says he is disappointed.

“I’m a rural guy. I’m a history teacher. I like traditions. The candidates chose to not go with this tradition,” Kaufmann said. “So now we’re going to make the most important tradition, which is our Caucus, we’re going to make it the absolute best Caucus that we’ve ever had.”

Ames had been the site for the past six Straw Polls, but hoping to spur renewed interest and reduce costs, party leaders selected the Central Iowa Expo grounds near Boone as the site for this summer’s Straw Poll.

In November of 2012 Iowa’s Republican governor, Terry Branstad, said the Straw Poll had “outlived its usefulness” and he predicted the event’s fate would rest in the hands of the candidates, which proved to be the case.