Rod Roberts wins Allamakee County Straw Poll

Sunday, October 25, 2009, 22:14
Iowa, News Center
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21 comments

rod roberts Below is the press release from the Roberts Campaign. Terry Branstad and Bob Vander Plaats were not in attendance.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Rod Roberts won a straw poll among Allamakee County Republicans on Sunday, providing further evidence of his increasing support in all corners of the state. The Allamakee County Republicans invited all republican gubernatorial candidates to participate in a forum prior to the straw poll. Following the forum, Roberts received 31% of the more than 60 votes cast.

“I am grateful for the support of republicans in Allamakee County,” said Roberts, a five-term State Representative from the western Iowa town of Carroll. “My campaign has been energized by the support of republicans throughout the state, whether in eastern or western Iowa, or urban or rural Iowa. All republicans are responding to my message of restoring competent, effective leadership to the Office of Governor, and this straw poll victory is just a reflection of the growing momentum behind our campaign.”

The straw poll was held during the Allamakee County Republicans’ fall fundraiser in Rossville. Following Roberts in the straw poll were Bob Vander Plaats (24%), Christian Fong (18%), Christopher Rants (15%), Terry Branstad (10%), and Jerry Behn (3%).

Tags: Behn, Branstad, Campaign 2010, Fong, Rants, Roberts, Vander Plaats

About the Author

Craig Robinson has written 700 stories on this site.

Craig Robinson serves as the founder and Editor-in-Chief of TheIowaRepublican.com. Prior to founding Iowa's largest conservative news site, Robinson served as the Political Director of the Republican Party of Iowa during the 2008 Iowa Caucuses. In that capacity, Robinson planned and organized the largest political event in 2007, the Iowa Straw Poll, in Ames, Iowa. Robinson also organized the 2008 Republican caucuses in Iowa, and was later dispatched to Nevada to help with the caucuses there. Robinson cut his teeth in Iowa politics during the 2000 caucus campaign of businessman Steve Forbes and has been involved with most major campaigns in the state since then. His extensive political background and rolodex give him a unique perspective from which to monitor the political pulse of Iowa.

21 Comments on “Rod Roberts wins Allamakee County Straw Poll”

Mark Vonderohe wrote on 25 October, 2009, 22:26
Congrats to Rod Roberts for winning our straw poll!!!!!

Thank you to all the candidates and people who attended the fundraiser this evening. Please note Bob Vander Plaats was planning to attend – however his son has some serious medical issues and he was unable to attend.

-Mark W Vonderohe – Allamakee county chairman
HawkCR1 wrote on 26 October, 2009, 7:36
Need some more info here… like how many people voted in this event? And what percentage did Roberts receive in this “straw poll”.
Conservative Demo wrote on 26 October, 2009, 7:58
Didja read the first paragraph?
GOP-in-2010 wrote on 26 October, 2009, 8:15
Way to go, Rod. It seems the most frequent criticism of his campaign is that he’s not known well enough statewide among grassroots Republicans. A quick Google search reveals Allamakee Co. is the most northeastern county in the state. And, it appears Rossville is over 250 miles away from Rod’s hometown of Carroll. (Google is incredible.) Point: the criticism that Rod isn’t known well enough among Republicans statewide is becoming a bit trite.
HawkCR1 wrote on 26 October, 2009, 8:35
Pardon me..i missed that sentence there CD… I stand corrected..

Now..only getting 18 votes out of 60 isn’t a very strong showing for any one…. I would hardly call this any major indication of how the race is shaping up.

GOP2010… Roberts was just in Johnson County not too long ago..and quite frankly, hardly any of the GOP activists at the meeting had ever heard of Rod Roberts before…so yes..Roberts has quite the hill to still climb in name recognition.
swiconservative wrote on 26 October, 2009, 8:57
Rod Roberts’ campaign is picking up steam. The opposition of course is going to say that his name recognition is not very high, but when it comes right down to it, he was nowhere near his hometown and still won. Won over Branstad even. Again. Roberts can’t be over looked…if you haven’t heard him speak anywhere before, get out to one of his events. That’s what I did and I was very impressed. Roberts is out there all over the state campaigning….I know that I’m not the only person that has kept an open mind in this election and go out to hear several of these candidates…after doing this Roberts definitely has my vote.
swiconservative wrote on 26 October, 2009, 8:59
Also, a win is a win. He flat out beat the other people in the poll….when it comes to the primary and election, numbers matter and that’s it.
GOP-in-2010 wrote on 26 October, 2009, 11:05
Hawk — I couldn’t disagree with you more in regards to this not being a big win for Roberts, but I would concede that the real story here may not be Roberts’s win, but Branstad’s shocking loss. This was the first straw poll since Gov. Branstad announced that he was a candidate for governor, and Roberts tripled his vote total. For that matter, 3 other candidates bested the former guv. Beyond Roberts’s win, the bigger story here is that Branstad finished 5th in the first straw poll since he announced he is a candidate for governor. Wow.
Peggy wrote on 26 October, 2009, 22:05
Folks,

What HawkCR1 is trying to tell you is polls and elections only count in certain counties in our grand state, i.e. Johnson, Polk and Linn. Anyone living outside those counties isn’t smart enough to weigh the issues and cast an informed vote.
swiconservative wrote on 27 October, 2009, 9:50
Well, fortunately I’m able to see the “Big” picture…..these candidates travel to each county and voters in every county will be voting. There are a lot of informed voters out there…just because they don’t post on this website daily, does not make them any less informed.
Michael Ryan wrote on 27 October, 2009, 16:51
Great win by Rep. Roberts, he really is a nice guy, even though he is not my first choice, I would still help him if he won the primary. Great job to Mark Vonderohe and the Allamakee County GOP for the excellent fundraiser and the press release to help promote it.

Michael Ryan
Pocahontas County GOP Chairman
Stacia wrote on 27 October, 2009, 21:01
Three things I concluded: BVP couldn’t be there since his son was seriously ill. He still got 24 percent of the vote. It is typical that people only casts votes for those who attend. I think Bob’s numbers are impressive for not being there. Also, Roberts was impressive, I think if Bob was there, Roberts numbers would go down since Roberts is probably BVP’s voter’s second choice. Also, Branstad’s numbers were shocking. Ten Percent? I thought he had the nomination wrappted up>
Timmy wrote on 28 October, 2009, 18:53
Rod Roberts is a good man and congrats on winning the poll. Why the socons would support BVP over him is beyond me! However, he needs a helluva lot of Allamakees to pull it off. When I see these kind of results in Linn, Johnson, Polk, Scott, DesMoines, BlackHawk, or Dubuque counties, I’ll sit up and take notice.
HawkCR1 wrote on 28 October, 2009, 19:27
Very true, Timmy… Iowa’s 99 counties…if Roberts can show some consistent results like this….then people will start taking more notice.

Stacia…overconfidence kills in politics…BVP’s a pretty well known quantity in Iowa politics…I would think that he should be concerned that a candidate who’s been in the race since July…did far better than he did.

As for Branstad.. No one said he had the nomination locked up… far from it….but his entrance into the race completely changes the dynamic of this race. Branstad has the organization, fundraising and name recognition that most of the GOP field wishes they had…
GOP-in-2010 wrote on 29 October, 2009, 13:05
Hawk — You mention that Branstad has the organization, fundraising, and name recognition that the other candidates wish they had. You’re right: Branstad has all those things. The very point is that despite these three qualities that you mention, he finished 5th and garnered 10% of the vote among grassroots republicans in this straw poll.
Unless Branstad actually generates enthusiasm among grassroots republicans — and it is clear that he hasn’t done so so far — he will lose the primary next June. Organization, fundraising, and name recognition aren’t sufficient to win the primary and, as I think some of the other candidates are beginning to demonstrate, they aren’t even necessary.
Stacia wrote on 29 October, 2009, 15:12
HAWKCR1,

I would be concerned that a 4-term governor only got 10% of the vote compared to the rest of the “unknown field.” Branstad and BVP were the only ones not attending and BVP got 14 percent more than Terry. That is what I would be concerned about.
Mr. Hawk wrote on 29 October, 2009, 15:43
BVP is not going to be the nominee. Your life will be a lot better when you people just acknowledge that. That doesn’t mean he’s a bad person. It just means that there’s no chance that BVP is the Republican nominee next year.
Timmy wrote on 29 October, 2009, 17:39
Mr. Hawk, I hope you are right. I’d like to think the majority of Republicans aren’t willing to commit political suicide just to prove a(very stupid) point

Stacia, I wouldn’t read too much into this just yet. Allamakee Co. isn’t exactly a huge population center and most of the rural counties are traditionally conservative. I like Roberts, but until we see results like this from a well populated county like those I mentioned previously I’d be pretty hesitant to start counting Branstad out.
HawkCR1 wrote on 29 October, 2009, 19:28
GOP and Stacia… Again.. you’re reading WAY too much into a straw poll that had only 60 people voting in it. Last time I checked Allamakee County is a nice place, but its not a critical county for a political candidate to win in order to win a statewide election.

And GOP in 2010..obviously, you haven’t been involved politically for very long..because without organization, fundraising and name recognition..you can’t build grassroots…and thus have little shot to win a primary…much less a general election.
Peggy wrote on 29 October, 2009, 22:07
“Last time I checked Allamakee County is a nice place, but its not a critical county for a political candidate to win in order to win a statewide election.” — HawkCR1

So, Hawk. Is it Rod Roberts’ fault that you elitists in Johnson county who supposedly have your fingers on the pulse of all things political had never heard of him? Think about it.
Stacia wrote on 30 October, 2009, 8:14
Oh, yes…I forgot…The only county worth living in and being a republican is Polk county. Seriously, you have to appeal to the rural areas as well as the urban areas in order to win the general. It seems like the rural areas are the only Republican strongholds left, and if you ignore them, you will lose. Branstad cannot just give a speech saying he’s in and expect everyone outside of Polk County to vote for him. He has to campaign in small counties. I know that he has done that in the past, and he should do it now. He cannot just skip all the little events and show up for the big events and expect to win.