Everyone else an "also ran."
Over 500 people attended the Davidson County Republican Party Picnic today in the pavilion at Centennial Park. It was a great event with blaring patriotic music, barbecue, speeches, one-on-one interaction with the candidates, and a straw poll. All of the candidates for governor were there and they mingled and worked the crowd.
The straw poll revealed what has widely been the perception of informed observers in the 5th Congressional district race and that is that the two front runners are Cece Heil and Jeff Hartline and Bob Schwartz is in third place but trailing. In the straw poll a total of 405 people cast ballots, however not everyone voted in all races.
In the straw poll for the 5th Congressional District Cece Heil came in first with 122 votes, Jeff Hartline came in second with 118 and Bob Schwartz came in, in third place with 72 votes. Below is the total breakdown:
David Hall- 12
Jeffery Alan Hartline- 118
Cece Heil- 122
Vijay Kumar- 10
Patrick Miranda- 5
Bob Ries- 10
Bob Schwartz- 72
Jarod D. Scott- 7
Lonnie Speak- 10
Alvin M. Strauss- 0
Tracy C. Tarun-3
I am not very surprised by these poll results. Many people, I think, thought David Hall would pull more votes but I never thought he would do much better than he did. I am surprised that Patrick Miranda did not do better, however. Patrick is a very likable guy and in the early days of the campaign he campaigned hard and was everywhere. I thought he would be a tea party favorite. I did not think he was a front-runner but thought that he would do better than next to last.
Several of the candidates had a big presence at the picnic with signs lining the approaches to the event, decorated booths with their literature, and campaign workers wearing campaign shirts and handing out literature. Each of the candidates present made a three minute speech to the crowd but the candidates worked the crowd shaking hands and meeting people one-on-one and asking them for their vote.
Five of the candidates however were absent. Alvin M. Strauss is not a surprise. No one has ever met him. He is just a name on the ballot and has never had an active campaign. He was not expected. The absence of the other candidates however is puzzling. The other no-shows were Patrick Maranda, V. J. Kumar, Tracy Tarum and David Hall.
Patrick Maranda is said to have an illness in is family that has kept him off the campaign trail and V. J. Kumar is said to have a job conflict that interferes with his campaign schedule. I have no idea where was Tracy Tarum.
Most puzzling is David Hall. He had had a very active campaign with big signs, radio and TV ads, robo calls, mailings, a large RV professionally painted like a tour bus and has had a major presence at other events. He has spend a lot of money in his campaign. However, some weeks ago David Hall stopped attending the Egg and Bacon summits that have been occurring across the county. Where was David Hall?
The DCRP picnic was the place to be to meet Republicans who make campaign contributions, who volunteer, who influence others and who always vote. Maybe the no-shows have a good reason why they could not be present at this event. Maybe they have a strategy for winning the Republican primary that involves by-passing Republicans, but I think they missed the boat. If there was one event a candidate should have attended it is this one. I think it is reasonable to ask if the no-shows are suspending their campaign.
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