http://theulstermanreport.com/2014/03/10/rand-paul-and-ted-cruz-support-stuns-gop-establishment/Rand Paul And Ted Cruz Support Stuns GOP Establishment
by Ulsterman on March 10, 2014
I’m quite certain the GOP elites are growing increasingly anxious over the grassroots support emerging for such out of the mainstream figures like Senators Ted Cruz and Rand Paul. Senator Paul had a particularly strong showing this weekend, winning three different polls as the candidate of choice for conservative voters: the CPAC straw poll, the ConservativeHQ.com poll, and a recent Drudge poll that generated nearly a quarter million votes. It would seem, at least so far, that conservatives are increasingly determined to pick THEIR candidate, and not allow the GOP machine to do so for them.
Rand Paul and Ted Cruz are among a new and far more independent movement within the Republican Party.
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DRUDGE READERS SURPRISE GOP ELITE FOR PREZ
Become latest to defy D.C. establishment in sizzling new poll
When it comes to picking a presidential candidate for 2016, the GOP elite is having a hard time getting the grassroots to toe the establishment line.Top Republican strategist Karl Rove, for example, has repeatedly praised Chris Christie, the Republican governor of New Jersey, as “a strong potential candidate in 2016,” whom Democrats fear will win the nomination.
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But now a poll on one of the Internet’s top websites, the Drudge Report, reveals the ground troops just aren’t buying it.
With over 234,000 votes counted, Rove’s “strong potential candidate,” Christie, was garnering less than five percent of the vote. Bush had just over six percent. Ryan had less than four.
But despite fiery criticism from the GOP establishment, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz was registering over 28 percent in the Drudge Report poll, while Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul was leading the survey, with over 30 percent. Paul’s 72,297 votes compared impressively to Christie’s 11,437.
Other recent polls of favorite presidential picks showed the same stark division between political conservatives and the GOP elite.
For example, Paul also won the straw poll at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, with 31 percent of the vote. Cruz came in second, with 11 percent, while Christie garnered only 8 percent.A separate, independent straw poll of conservatives conducted by veteran activist Richard A. Viguerie of ConservativeHQ.com found Paul again the favorite, with 29 percent, and Cruz again in second, with 17 percent. Christie came in at 10 percent, while Ryan and Bush only picked up 2 percent each. LINK