Former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain continues to rise and soon he’ll probably get a lot of dough. Campaign contributions, that is. The latest: his strong showing in the Values Voter Summit straw poll which was another win for Rep. Ron Paul — but the real focus will be on Cain, since Paul increasingly seems like too much of a niche candidate to go beyond a certain degree of political support:
Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, won the Values Voter Straw poll on Saturday with 37% of the vote.
Businessman Herman Cain and former Sen. Rick Santorum finished in second and third place with 23% and 16% respectively.
So Santorum is also on the rise among this segment of voters although there is no steady sign that he is nationally on the ascent. Cain will be the one who will raise the eyebrows since he’s clearly drawing support away from the well-funded Texas. Gov. Rick Perry, who can be expected to (finally) put in a good debate performance at the GOP Presidential nomination debates in New Hampshire this week given that it’s clear that the debates have begun to deflate his candidacy:
Texas Governor Rick Perry and Rep. Michele Bachmann,R-Minn., finished with 8 %, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney received 4% and former Speaker Newt Gingrich received 3% of the vote.
Mitt Romney was not expected to do well among these voters. But Perry? His vote here will be seen as a major defeat. Additionally, both Romney and Perry gave solid speeches, yet these voters still were not turned on by them. This again suggests Cain is starting to fill a void…in their hearts, at the very least.
Paul supporters came out strong during his speech on Saturday at the Omni Shoreham hotel, standing and cheering several times.
By now this is a familiar story: Paul’s supporters love him and come out at events such as this but in the past their fervent support and devotion to him didn’t translate into primary victories that propel him to the head of the pack. Cain has also been a candidate who wins the hearts of many conservatives but he is increasingly translating that into strong support in polls.
And straw polls.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.