The Short Straw (Poll)
Republicans waiting with bated breath for the results from the party's straw poll at Farmfest will apparently have to just keep waiting.
Party leaders nixed the informal gauge of gubernatorial support at the annual gathering, which ends today -- but not, apparently, until after the poll had been going for a while.
RPM spokesman Mark Drake confirmed the informal balloting: "A straw poll was started but stopped because the state chair had not authorized it. We didn't want to take attention away from our state convention poll in October."
The Farmfest gathering near Redwood Falls draws about 40,000 people, presumably a fair number of Republicans among them. It's also a mere 45 miles from Marty Seifert's house, presumably qualifying him, nearly, as a local favorite for the Republican nomination.
Asked about the potential for "skewed" preliminary results, Drake repeated that the takedown was only a matter of party authorization. He said he wasn't aware of any previous sanctioned polling at Farmfest. Then again, it has probably been a while since a contested Republican gubernatorial nomination turned up at the ag expo.
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