National party: Iowa GOP Straw Poll can go on

DES MOINES - The Iowa Straw Poll does not run afoul of the Republican Party's presidential selection process, an attorney for the national GOP wrote Thursday in a memo to the state party.

Republican Party of Iowa leaders are scheduled to meet Saturday to discuss the future of its Straw Poll, a fundraising event held during presidential selection years - just a few months before the Iowa caucuses - at which activists cast votes for their preferred candidate.

The event recently has been criticized for various reasons, including some spelled out in the memo issued Thursday by RNC general counsel John Ryder: that it could be perceived as a de facto double-dip for Iowa in the presidential selection process, that it is unfair to lesser known and funded candidates and that it is too media- and consultant-driven.

Iowa's top elected Republicans, Gov. Terry Branstad and U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, have expressed concerns that the Straw Poll could endanger Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses.

Ryder's memo appears to put those concerns to rest, while also conceding he largely relied on the testimony of Iowa GOP chairman Jeff Kaufmann.

'In short, the straw poll has absolutely no bearing on the official presidential nomination process,” Ryder's memo says. 'Indeed, it is exactly the nature of the Iowa straw poll as simply a fundraising mechanism at an entertainment event for Republican activists and their families, with absolutely no connection to any primary, caucuses or state convention, that protects the straw poll from the requirements of (party rules).”

The memo, however, cautions the Iowa GOP to keep the Straw Poll within those parameters.

'If the Republican Party of Iowa decides to conduct a straw poll at its gathering in August, it is recommended that you continue to make clear to candidates, activists, and the public that the straw poll is unofficial and unscientific,” the memo says. 'Such assurances will help make certain that candidates do not feel obligated to compete; that the media, candidates and public do not bestow unwarranted significance on the results; and that the Credentials Committee does not have reason to determine that The Rules of the Republican Party have been violated and refuse to seat the Iowa delegation to the 2016 Republican National Convention.”

Kaufmann previously said that he expects the state central committee will continue the Straw Poll.

'In discussions with senior RNC officials, including legal counsel, it was crystal clear that the Iowa GOP's inclusion of a straw poll in an August 2015 fundraising event does not violate those new rules, nor place in jeopardy our status as the lead-off state in the presidential nomination process,” Kaufmann said Thursday in a statement.