True North

I had to rush from the caucus to a old men hockey game, so this is old news by now, but still worth sharing.

The precinct (W-1 P-5 in Richfield) I chaired had its best turnout in a long time according to the guys that have been working for the GOP/IR longer than me, we were low on everything. As my tellers handed me the results I was surprised. Gov. Romney took 49% (22) of the votes and Ron Paul had 22% (10). McCain and Huckabee came in with 13% and 11% and there were still even two die-hard Fred-heads.

There was clearly organization for Ron Paul supporters. I heard them talk of meetings in the last few days and I saw them all introducing each other as some of these people met for the first time. I was really impressed because they shared names and took notes so that they could nominate each other for delegate positions. Of course, this organization was done in vain since they could have nominated themselves.

I’m happy to see that Minnesota went for Gov. Romney, clearly we have a group of people who are paying attention and not buying the McCain “straight talk express”. Too bad the same can not be said elsewhere. If you look at this map, it is intersting how the “state wins” for Romney and Huckabee are grouped fairly well from Tuesday.

A final note, what happened with the latest poll? The January 18-27 MPR poll really blew it!

Here is a quote from it:

“Republicans are rallying around John McCain’s campaign, while Hillary Clinton holds a narrow lead among Democrats.”

Uhhhh… not so much. Minnesota rallied around McCain to the tune of a 20 point loss to Romney and only a six point margin over Ron Paul. On the other side, you have the DFL going 2-1 Obama over Clinton. OUCH!

I never agreed with the Clinton numbers, I saw this state as a Obama state all the way. Check out my post after Iowa, I indicated that there.

As for the GOP, I wonder if you are seeing that Romney has the support of MN people who actually volunteer for and support the GOP financially. Maybe the people in the poll who supported McCain never got off the couch to vote tonight? As discussed here and elsewhere, there in lies the whole problem with candidate McCain. The people who actually write checks and do the footwork could likely vote for him in November, but the problem is they will hold their cash and spectate leading up to the vote.

Cross-posted at TvM.