Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul came in on top again at a straw poll over the weekend, but as usual the congressman from Texas is creating a bit of commotion with his continuing success.
Rep. Paul placed first during the Values Voter Summit’s straw poll in Washington this weekend, but Family Research Council President Tony Perkins quickly dismissed the results of his own survey, instead insisting that pizzaman Herman Cain was the real winner.
“I think there’s something to be said about his results in the straw poll,” Perkins said of Cain to CNN on Monday.
Perkins was quick to denounce Paul’s success. To CNN’s American Morning on Monday today, Perkins said, “I don’t think Ron Paul is truly reflective of where values voters stand.”
Though Perkins has no problem voicing his own favorite, the voters in Washington opted for Paul as the winner, which was seen in the real results. Of the 1,983 ballots case, Paul took 732, or 37 percent of the total.
Cain came in second with 23 percent of the votes, followed by former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum.
Previously Paul had won straw polls in California and South Carolina, as well as a straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference much earlier in 2011. His continuing success as he garners supporters has created just as much controversy, however. Following his performance at a recent televised GOP debate, online voters at the website for Fox News suggested that Paul was the winner of the event. Within hours, however, Fox struck the results off the website.
Paul had previously acknowledged his own success, telling the debate crowd that he was hesitant to discuss his choice for a running mate until he placed consistently in the top two. He was quick to remind the audience, however, that he has been polling strong seemingly everywhere since he announced his candidacy.
One place voters have been continuing to show opposition for sure is with the campaign for Rep. Michele Bachmann, which seems to be running out of steam. Despite starting off strong, the representative from Minnesota came in fifth at the Values Voter Summit contest.