GRASPING AT STRAW(POLL)S: Why Doesn’t Colorado Have a Straw Poll Any More?

Some of the anger and frustration from Republicans (and, let’s be real, Democrats pretending to be Republicans to gin up angst) in Colorado is because they feel that their voice was not heard. In engaging with some of these folks on Twitter, it would seem that part of their issue is that Colorado declined this year to participate in a straw poll.

In August 2015, the executive committee of the Colorado GOP voted unanimously to scrap the straw poll. It’s important to note here that the executive committee is not made up of just the chairman, treasurer, secretary and vice chair, but also of the chairs of all 64 county parties in Colorado. Again, this was decided unanimously after the national GOP changed a rule that would have required Colorado to bind its delegates according to the straw poll.

According to sources familiar with the vote, Colorado’s leadership said no thanks for two reasons:

1. Election security – in years past, the straw poll was simply not secure
2. Number of candidates – with so many candidates in the race, it would have been difficult to split up the delegation and could have diluted Colorado’s influence at the national convention

At the time, some argued that getting rid of the straw poll would marginalize Colorado’s influence over the process. Now, people feel like they did not have a vote. Nonetheless, this was a group decision in reaction to a rule change from the national level, not a unilateral decision by a handful of people to jam up one candidate.

Just in keeping you in the know, PeakNation™.