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Is Romney worried about P5?

Posted Sep 20, 2011 by William March

Updated Sep 20, 2011 at 06:41 PM

Mitt Romney says he’s not competing in the state Republican Party’s planned Presidency 5 straw poll this weekend—but Rick Perry backers say he’s playing down the straw poll on the one hand while campaigning for straw poll votes on the other.

Romney announced months ago that he wouldn’t compete in any party straw polls, including the Ames, Ia. straw poll in August and the Florida and Michigan straw polls this weekend. He said he didn’t want to use campaign resources on these events, which don’t have any concrete effect.

But the P5 straw poll, designed to be a representative sample of the state’s GOP grass roots, instead of the typical vote-buying charade like most party straw polls, may get a lot of attention in Florida and the nation.

And Romney happens to have scheduled events in the week leading up to the poll that are likely to put him into contact with P5 delegates.

Tonight, for example, he’s holding a volunteer coordinating meeting with just before the Hillsborough County Republican Party executive committee meeting, in the same meeting hall—many P5 delegates are executive committee members. Thursday, he’ll have a meeting with the Miami-Dade County legislative delegation—all legislators are P5 delegates—just before his appearance at the Faith and Freedom Coalition rally at the P5 convention.

“Those in the party I speak with feel as though they are campaigning actively under the table ... that they’re actively pursuing these delegates while saying they’re not,” said Tampa Perry backer Wes Maddox.

Romney campaign spokesman Ryan Williams denied that.

He said the campaign hasn’t bought a list of the P5 delegates, available from the state party, and isn’t holding events for groups of delegates, as the Perry campaign is.

“Obviously, we are trying to build support for Gov. Romney in Florida and taking advantage of the time he’s spending in the state this week,” Williams said. “We’re competing in the primary, obviously, but we’re not competing in the straw poll under the table. If someone makes that accusation, I’d like to see some proof.”