Undeterred by the severe drubbing at the hands of President Barack Obama in the last polls, the Republican Party’s conservative base has gone through with a three-day conclave in suburban Washington that not only pilloried the liberals but also projected its early favourites for the next presidential race in 2016.
Sidelining some of the familiar figures, the Conservative Political Action Conference’s first straw poll for 2016 declared Rand Paul, a maverick first-term Senator, the winner, closely followed by Marco Rubio, a Cuban-American Senator from Florida who is being viewed as a rising Republican star. Paul got 25 per cent of the vote, against Rubio’s 23 per cent.
The poll found Bobby Jindal, the Indian-American governor of louisiana, and Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee in the 2008 race, trailing way behind. The two were tied for the ninth place among 23 probable Republican aspirants, with each securing just 3 per cent of the votes.
Former Senator Rick Santorum, who waged a spirited battle for the last Republican presidential nomination, came third in the straw poll, but bagged just 8 per cent of the votes. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Congressman Paul Ryan, the vice-presidential nominee last year, followed with 7 per cent and 6 per cent respectively.
Although it is early days and the Republican field can be expected to undergo many changes over the next couple of years, the CPAC straw polls are closely followed in the party circles over the standing of probable candidates and their conservative credentials. Yet, the poll is thought to have offered some “bragging rights” to Senators Paul and Rubio, both deemed to be favourites of the Tea Party conservatives.
Paul had recently attracted attention by launching a 13-hour filibuster in the Senate against President Obama’s nominee for CIA director, John Brennan. Earlier, at a Senate committee hearing, he had grilled the then Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, saying that had he been president, he would have relieved her of her post over her handling of the Benghazi episode that resulted in the terrorist killing of US envoy Christopher Stevens.
The CPAC meet saw some 70-odd Republicans take the podium, including Mitt Romney, who lost the presidential race to Obama last November, and Senator John McCain, who lost it in 2008. Palin, Jindal, Paul, Rubio all spoke at the conclave.
Jindal, who has been telling the Republicans since Romney’s defeat that they should cease to be “the party of the stupid”, said it was now time to “recalibrate the compass of conservatism”.