Conservative leader discounts Paul win
Posted by
CNN Producer Gabriella Schwarz
(CNN) - The president of the Family Research Council characterized Rep. Ron Paul's weekend win in the Values Voter Summit straw poll as "an outlier."
Tony Perkins, who heads the social conservative group, said the Republican presidential candidate influenced the results by busing supporters to the event, proving his 37% support is not reflective of social conservative backing nationally.
"I think Ron Paul, when you look at everything is an outlier in this poll," Perkins said Monday on CNN's "American Morning." "You see Herman Cain finishing a strong second, followed by Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry. Those are more reflective I think of actually the other polls and what's happening in the social conservative community."
Paul, the longtime Texas congressman who is making his third bid for the White House, led the field of GOP candidates including former Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain with 23%, former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania with 16%, Texas Gov. Rick Perry with 8%, Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota with 8%, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney with 4% and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich with 3%.
Thanks to strong support from his followers, Paul has come out on top in many of the most prominent GOP presidential nomination straw polls over the past two years. He won the Conservative Political Action Conference contest in 2010 and 2011 and the straw poll at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference earlier this year.
Perkins also connected the sentiments of the Occupy Wall Street movement with those of Paul supporters, over 700 of whom voted in Saturday's survey.
"We should not discount there's a lot of discontent with big ineffective government that's taking place in this country, and I think the Ron Paul campaign reflects that," Perkins said. "The message of his campaign is sending is something other campaigns have to listen to as well."
Romney won the straw poll during his last bid for the White House in 2008 and Perkins attributed his drop to decreased attention over values issues, despite articulating "those values this year" during his speech.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/10/10/conservative-leader-discounts-paul-win/?iref=allsearch

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