If the results of the DC GOP straw poll last week are any indication of Mitt Romney’s chances of winning today’s presidential primary in the District of Columbia, Romney will handily win most, if not all, of DC’s 16 delegates.
At the local party’s annual Lincoln Douglass Dinner the straw poll was a blowout for Romney, who won the poll with 72 percent of the vote. Paul and Santorum tied for third with only one vote separating them from second place winner, Newt Gingrich, who received 8.2 percent of the vote.
Romney’s DC co-chair, who is also a Vice Chair of the DCGOP, Teri Galvez said the straw poll was encouraging but she thought her candidate would win today based on the number of people throughout DC who told her they were voting for Romney.
“My prediction is it’s going to be somewhere around 70 percent for Mitt,” she said. “I could be wrong. I’m not a pollster, I’m going on my gut, based on the 2,500 calls I made.”
Galvez, who is also running for office, said she’s engaged in a “phone blitz” over the last week, making 70-100 calls a day to voters.
“By the time I get off the phone with them, they are voting for Mitt.
“If I call 10 voters, eight to nine of them are supporting Mitt. The others are supporting Ron Paul or Gingrich; not so many Santorum supporters,” she said.
Though Rick Santorum was listed on the DCGOP straw poll ballot, he did not appear on the official ballot in DC because he did not meet the requirements last December.
Ironically, Jon Huntsman, who is no longer in the presidential race, did qualify to make the ballot and was listed as an official choice, though the presidential primary was realistically a three-man race between Gingrich, Paul and Romney.
While it is possible one of the other candidates could beat Romney today, it is highly unlikely.
Gingrich delegate Crystal Wright, communications consultant the blog Conservative Black Chick told Red Alert Politics she thought her candidate had “zero” chance of winning today.
“People refused 2 sign petitions last winter 2 get him on ballot despite fact he has best ideas and received results as speaker. DC=RINOs,” she said in a message on twitter.
Knowing he probably would not win the District, Gingrich held only one event in DC ahead of the primary at George Washington University. Paul held no events in DC.
Romney held no events open to the public in DC, but he did hold a series of fundraisers in the District throughout the last several months, including two low-dollar fundraisers for young professionals at Lincoln in Downtown DC and Lounge 201 on Capitol Hill (neither of which he attended in person).
“I would have liked to see more of him, but I think his time would have been better spent somewhere else,” Galvez said.
Romney spent most of his time during the last week in Wisconsin, which is also holding it’s primary today in addition to Maryland.
Romney is expected to clean house in Wisconsin and Maryland today, too, though not by as large a margin as Washington, DC.
