AL Senate District 7 Straw Poll Results
2009 February 21
All six Republicans seeking the nomination for the vacant Alabama Senate District 7 seat spoke briefly at this morning’s Madison County Republican Men’s Club breakfast. A straw poll was held after their speeches. Also, an early straw poll was held for the Alabama governors race.
Results of the AL Senate-7 straw poll:
- Roger Richardson, 70 votes (36%)
- Paul Sanford, 42 votes (21%)
- Mary Scott Hunter, 27 votes (14%)
- Allan Rhodes, 21 votes (11%)
- Sam Givhan, 15 votes (8%)
- Undecided, 12 votes (6%)
- Peter Wright, 9 votes (5%)
Mr. Undecided fared much better in the gubernatorial preference straw poll, however. Here are the results from that vote:
- Undecided, 81 votes (40%)
- Tim James, 32 votes (16%)
- Troy King, 28 votes (14%)
- Bradley Byrne, 25 votes (12%)
- Luther Strange, 16 votes (8%)
- Mike Hubbard, 14 votes (7%)
- Kay Ivey, 9 votes (4%)
- Jack Hawkins, 0 votes (0%)
All of the candidates for governor, with the exception of Hawkins, have committed to speaking individually at the Men’s Club breakfasts in the coming months.
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Do uou think Troy King will actually run for Governor or run again for Attorney General?
I thought he was prevented from running for AG again due to term limits, but I’m not sure.
I don’t see a path to victory for him in the governor’s race, but I’m not a big fan of his. He only survived the recent whisper campaign about him by keeping a low profile. Would be hard to avoid such unpleasantness on the campaign trail.
I am thinking that he was initially appointed, then ran and won in 2006. If so, he can run for AG one more time if he choses. I agree with you re the unpleasantness but it will come up no matter which office he runs for. However, I don’t think his ego will allow him to just fade away.
Your right OP. He was appointed to replace Pryor. I dont see him or Big ‘ol Luther running for Governor. Troy’s damaged for obvious reasons and Luther’s loss to itzy bitzy Jim hurts him as well. Kay Ivey doesnt have the “looks” of a Sarah Palin or Marsha Blackburn. So I doubt if she’ll factor in all that much. Hubbard will sink because the GOP has blown a few races they shouldve won with relative ease during his time at the helm. I think the primary will come down to Byrne,Hawkins and James.
Brian – it’s mike hubbard, not hubbert…sorry to be picky. two very different men so wouldn’t want anyone to think Mike and Paul were related…
Oops. I do that almost every time. Since corrected.
Tim James is coming on strong in the Tennessee Valley. He’s well liked and appears to be the only strong conservative candidate in the governor’s race.
I have to say – I was most impressed with Sanford’s showing in the straw poll and most surprised by Givhan’s. In full disclosure, I am supporting Paul Sanford.
#8 I agree that Givhan’s showing is surprising and should cause some degree of concern in that camp. He’s had the full weight of the party establishment behind him. I think his donations to Democrats – reported on this blog – are torpedoing his campaign.
I think both Richardson and Sanford probably stuffed the ballot with friends, but that doesn’t explain Givhan’s poor showing.
And #7 I agree – I think James is beginning to pick up some steam.
I don’t think that Richardson or Sanford “stuffed the ballot” to the extent that it changed the outcome. Over 40 votes separated Richardson from Hunter, who came in third. I attend that meeting regularly and I didn’t see 40 new faces. I could be wrong, but I don’t think Sanford even brought his family, so I doubt his showing was due to stuffing the ballot. A number of the regulars I talked to before the meeting like him.
I stand corrected Brian. I just know how these things go sometimes. Richardson’s performance is very impressive then, and as I indicated before, I think Givhan has problems.
EW – even if you discount the turnout of Richardson supporters (which, of course, you shouldn’t), he still gained the most votes.
Turnout is key. What impressed me about the straw poll was that Richardson was able to turn out some college-aged young men at 8AM on a Saturday – that is an accomplishment :)
It also shows that he knows how to campaign.
I would agree that Richardson “stuffed” the ballot to some extent. I doubt it made the difference between he and Hunter, but I it might have been the difference between he and Sanford. That being said, they both had very strong showings.
Givhan has not had and does not have the full weight of the party establishment behind him. Not to say he doesn’t have some of the big dollar backers, but it’s not the party establishment as a whole (or even a majority from what I can tell).
I would not discount Mary Scott Hunter entirely. She seems to be very personable one on one; however, she doesn’t do the best job speaking to groups. The more she can avoid that, the better off she will be.
Sanford and Richardson both seem to be popular among regular attendees of the club. We’ll see how much of it carries over into the actual election.
Richardson and Rhodes are the only candidates I ever hear actually discussing the issues, so I am surprised that Rhodes didn’t fare better in this poll. I definitely support Rhodes’ business-like approach to the budget issues, and I will be voting for him. We need someone who’s actually had to stick to a budget and live within his means in Montgomery.
David I agree with you about Rhodes. I think he easily has the best grasp on the issues. He would almost certanly be the best senator if he is viable in the election.
Thanks for the input. Roger has been campaigning very hard, and I have come to like all of the candidates on the trail. Please watch my infomercial on Comcast Cable 3 and Mediacom Cable 4. I take about 15 minutes to discuss the issues important to me, including the budget, Pro-Life, Fairtax, etc. 4 minute Forums don’t do alot for the candidates. I don’t have a lot of money in the game but I have a lot of technology and new ideas. Vote March 3rd. It’s key to getting the right person elected.
To me Rhodes and Sanford have done the best job truly expressing the issues and what their plans are to handle them. I definitely don’t think Hunter, Givhan or Wright touch on any of the issues for the most part.
I really like Rhodes and he is definitely my second choice to win the nomination. I would really say I have Sanford as choice 1 and Rhodes as 1(a). Rhodes is an excellent communicator with some new approaches to campaigning that I hope the Madison County Republicans will embrace for the future. I would be disappointed to not see Rhodes continue to seek office in the future.
Before I get started with my response to Jonathan’s “objective observer” posts, let me first identify myself. Most of you already know me. I am Roger Richardson’s campaign manager. I was not a long time friend of Roger’s prior to joining the campaign. I went to the December meeting for the Republican Men’s Club, after deciding not to run for the seat, with the intention of talking with all of the candidates. I spoke with Paul, Mary Scott, Sam and Allan prior to speaking to Roger. I decided to support Roger and originally intended to maybe make a donation or simply just voting for him. After getting to know him and his platform pretty well, I realized that I needed to step it up. It started with yard signs, then organizing some volunteers and by the 3rd of January he asked me to serve as Campaign Manager and I obviously accepted. That’s my story of how I became involved with Roger Richardson’s campaign. Like more than half of the 7 campaign volunteers that were at the breakfast last Saturday, we met Roger at the monthly meetings and were impressed with his knowledge of the issues and his conservative, yet simple, solutions. Jonathan talks about “stacking” at the straw poll and acts like a person that showed up that day with no connections or ties to the Sanford campaign. That is a falsehood, Jonathan, like myself, shows up at the events like this one to pass out campaign literature for his “guy”. I want to address the Alabama A&M students that showed up, all five of them. How many of those 5 showed up for Paul, Mary Scott, Allan, Sam or Peter? How many A&M students have shown up at Republican events? At 8:00 in the morning? NONE! Roger Richardson has strong ties to a community that has been written off by the Party in the past. He has served in the North Huntsville communities as a Minister and an Economic Development Specialist. He has help some of those kids realize there potential and helped guide them into college. He has helped some of the small business owners get financing to start their business. You discount this phenomenon as “stacking”. Truly you miss the overall picture where our Republican nominee has to win votes in the A&M and North Huntsville voting block. Roger has proven that he can bring that community out to support him…as a Republican. What happened in that straw poll Saturday was Roger Richardson spoke very well, addressing the issues and providing solutions. He did it with conviction and he did it without note cards or a written speech. He spoke from his Conservative principles and the attendees rewarded him. I will give you 7 votes from Roger’s 70 votes and he still won the room by 21 votes. Spin it as you will, but Roger Richardson is hands-down the best speaker, he always speaks to the issues and he sets the bar for the entire field at every event. It may sting a little, but the truth is the truth and it cannot be altered or denied.
Kal – if you would read – in my first post I clearly stated that I am a supporter of Paul Sanford. I never once claimed to be an “objective” observer – merely an observer with clear ties to one candidate. So I will go ahead and accept your apology for making the false accusation that I somehow mislead the public.
I will state though, while I showed up at the even fully supporting Paul Sanford, I come to every meeting and did not intend to pass out literature before I arrived (but nor did I turn down the opportunity once I arrived).