Coalition of NH Taxpayers picnic straw poll results.

For many years the annual gathering of NH taxpayers picnic held at the Hopkinton Fairgrounds has been a good place to guage the state of grass roots activism in the Granite State. The event seems to take on a slightly different tone from year to year. Years back when the Granite State Taxpayers hosted the BBQ, Pat Buchanan ruled. During primary years, he would blow all comers out of the water. In the end, one might question to what effect, but nevertheless, his strength was with the hardcore local activists. Never a majority (well, except for that one special year when Pat won the NH Primary) in major elections, my fellow activists have long kept the flame of limited, open government alive.

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This year was somewhat different in that the libertarians, both big and little "L" along with the Free-Staters, in addition to many people who are no longer affiliated with any party made up a large portion of attendees. And why not? When one looks at who’s out there beating the bushes and raising issues with government, it is more and more those folks who wish to just be left alone and those completely disillusioned with the poor performance and failed promises of supposed "conservative" Republican rule.

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With all that being said, who won the presidential straw poll? One guess? Who has the hardest working activists of either party these days here in the Granite State, both on the ground and on the Internet? Ron Paul. How do I know? I can see it– both on the various on-line polls and at political events such as today’s Coalition of NH Taxpayers’ annual picnic. The good news for libertarian Republican Ron Paul is that today he got 182 votes, making him the clear, overwhelming winner of the straw poll in which 294 votes overall were cast. The bad news for Mr. Paul is that number probably represents a sizeable chunk of all of his voters statewide. Short on numbers, they do have lots of spirit & enthusiasm. 

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Here are the overall results…

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Keep in mind that, unlike some straw polls, this was non-partisan, and did not follow any list of candidates. "Voters" were free to choose anyone they’s like. What does it all mean? Anything? You tell me…

I think one thing this means is that "non-partisan" straw polls are rather awkward. Also, the mainstream party types are rare in the taxpayer/activist circles these days, perhaps viewing the grassroots crowd as unneccesary pieces of the electoral process in the modern NH primary.

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One last note… The single ballot marked for Dennis Kucinich had the following phrase written on it:

Heh! Sounds like a fitting way to describe the entire day. Will Ron Paul be president? What do you think?