Branstad: Straw poll likely will go forward

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad said on Wednesday he thinks the Republican Party of Iowa's controversial straw poll will continue, as he and other party leaders continue to say it's the state's first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses that are their top priority.

The state GOP central committee is scheduled to meet Saturday to decide the fate of the Iowa Straw Poll, an institution itself that usually is held in conjunction with a large party fundraiser in Ames the summer before the precinct caucuses.

Branstad previously has said the party should forgo the straw poll. But Wednesday, in a meeting with reporters in Des Moines, he suggested it will continue.

When asked if he thought the party would drop the event, he said, 'Oh, I don't think so. I understand that the majority of them want to have some kind of straw poll event this summer. I respect the fact this is a party event.”

The straw poll has come under criticism for several reasons, one of them being the feeling by other states that it gives Iowa a second bite at the apple by luring presidential aspirants to compete for the approval of activists who will get another chance just months later at the precinct caucuses.

Last month, Iowa GOP Chairman Jeff Kaufmann said he hoped to get an opinion from the Republican National Committee about whether the straw poll was consistent with party rules.

Kaufmann said Wednesday that he had spoken with the RNC about the matter. He said he didn't know what it what its opinion would be but he thinks it 'felt much better about what we are doing,” given his assurances the straw poll isn't a scientific poll.

He emphasized that a lot of activists who attend the August event don't even vote in it.

The Republican National Committee has gone to great lengths to set up a nomination process, one that has preserved early voting status for states such as Iowa and New Hampshire. And its opinion on the straw poll is expected to carry some weight when the state party central committee gathers on Saturday.

Kaufmann said last month that he thought central committee members were leaning toward having a straw poll. And on Wednesday, he, along with Branstad, reiterated the caucuses are their top priority.

'I want to make sure that this is the first real test for anybody that wants to run for president, that all the candidates feel welcome and that it will be a fair and level playing field in the state of Iowa,” Branstad said.

On his weekly conference call with Iowa reporters, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, echoed those thoughts, although declined to weigh in on whether the straw poll should continue.

'I just don't have any opinion of whether we ought to have a straw poll. But I think we better make it adequately clear to the rest of the nation, or at least the Republicans in the rest of the nation, that we consider the straw poll very non-binding,” he said. 'It ought to be very clear what kind of vote it is.”

The party meeting Saturday will deal with several issues, not just the straw poll. But media interest, in both Iowa and outside the state, about the straw poll has been significant.

Des Moines Bureau reporters Erin Murphy and James Q. Lynch contributed to this story.