http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/feb/28/cpac-straw-poll-rand-paul-wins-scott-walker-surgin/print/CPAC 2015 Straw Poll: Rand Paul wins again — but Scott Walker is surging
By Seth McLaughlin and Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times - Saturday, February 28, 2015
Sen. Rand Paul won The Washington Times/CPAC presidential preference straw poll for the third time in a row while Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker surged to second place, as they trounced the rest of a strong but crowded field of potential candidates Saturday.
Sen. Ted Cruz slipped to third place, down a rung from his showing last year, with retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson in fourth and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush fifth.
The more than 3,000 conservative activists who voted at this year's Conservative Political Action Conference also showed commanding support for legalizing marijuana, with a strong plurality of 41 percent saying it should be legal for recreational use, and another 26 percent saying Americans should be able to at least use it for medicinal purposes with permission of a doctor.
And the activists were overwhelmingly in favor of Congress using its power of the purse to halt President Obama's new deportation amnesty, with more than three-quarters of voters saying they agree — and a stunning 60 percent saying they "strongly agree" with the tactic.
The poll, conducted between Thursday and Saturday at CPAC by Polling Company Inc./WomenTrend pollster Kellyanne Conway, takes the temperature of the grassroots leaders who help shape the minds of conservative voters across the country. The poll showed a conservative movement skeptical of military intervention and eager to undo Mr. Obama's health law and his unilateral immigration moves.
But with less than a year until voters cast ballots in the first presidential primaries and caucuses, the straw poll, taken Thursday to Saturday, is a particularly good test of which presidential candidates have early momentum.
Mr. Paul's third straight win was impressive, though his share of the vote dropped from 31 percent in 2014 to 25.7 percent this year.
"You have to say that Rand Paul did what he had to do when he came here. He fired up his passionate supporters who were out in number as they always are, and he maintained equilibirum with them and held them solid," said Charlie Gerow, a board member of the American Conservative Union, which plays host to CPAC, held this year just outside the beltway in suburban Maryland.
It's still to be seen whether Mr. Paul can translate popularity among conservative activists into votes next year. His father, then-Rep. Ron Paul, won the straw poll twice in the run-up to the 2012 presidential contest, but struggled to win primaries.
Mr. Walker saw the biggest surge in this year's poll, rising from sixth place and 7 percent last year to reach 21.4 percent this year. That was nearly twice the 11.5 percent Mr. Cruz garnered — about the same as his showing last year.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who has been trying to regain steam after a rough year, came in 10th with just 2.8 percent support, showing a steep dive from his fourth-place 8-percent showing in 2014.
When first and second choice preferences were combined, Mr. Paul and Mr. Walker were even closer, with 41.5 percent of respondents listing Mr. Paul as in their top two, and 40.8 percent listing Mr. Walker. Mr. Cruz and Mr. Carson trailed with little more than half that support.
Karen Reagan, 38, from Raleigh, N.C., praised Mr. Walker's stand against public labor unions in Wisconsin — a battle that earned him a recall election, which he survived. He has since won a second term, meaning he's won three elections in swing-state Wisconsin in little more than four years.
"I think he is the most unifying figure that this party has had in a couple of decades," she said. "This guy set out to do something in Wisconsin and he had 100,000 people screaming at him, terrorizing him and his family."
"To stand up in the face of that kind of terror and abuse, I am there is just no question where my heart is at," she said.
The 17 names on this year's straw poll already represents somewhat of a winnowing from last year, when more than two dozen names were listed.
Beyond the presidential contest, the poll suggested a continued shift among the conservative activists hear toward a libertarian attitude on marijuana. The 65 percent who said the drug should be legal for medicinal or recreational purposes is a jump of 4 percentage points from 2014's poll.
Asked about the Common Core education standards that have become a flashpoint, 57.6 percent of conservatives at CPAC said they would not be able to vote for a candidate who supported the standards. That is likely to affect Mr. Bush the most — his remarks to the conference this week included a defense of Common Core, even though many of his rivals have backed away from their previous support.
