Tommy Thompson's cutoff: Big Straw Poll show

by Rick Pearson

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa—The make or break date for former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson's bid for the Republican presidential nomination is Aug. 11—the date that the Iowa GOP holds a straw poll that tests the organizing mettle of the candidates.

"I'm outworking every other candidate and I think Iowa responds to people who work hard and I think that's going to show up in the straw poll," Thompson said Sunday afternoon after greeting about 100 people who chowed down on pork barbecue sandwiches and macaroni salad at a pavilion in Noelridge Park.

It was Thompson's seventh visit to Cedar Rapids as he continues his small-scale low-budget campaign, focused on recruiting support by showing up in each of Iowa's 99 counties. Before he stepped back onto his campaign RV, he said he's got a dozen counties left to complete the tour.

But just how long Thompson's road show will continue will be determined at the straw poll, the candidate said.

"If I can't win first or second place, I'm not going on," Thompson said.

"I don't have the money," he says, comparing himself with others in the contest. "I'm going to spend the money on organizing and getting people to the straw poll. That's retail. That's what I'm doing. Nobody else is doing this heavy lifting of retail—eight cities in a day."

At this year's straw poll, Thompson has the assurance that at least Rudy Giuliani and John McCain aren't participating. But former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and his wealth are taking part and there are questions about the impact in Iowa of another Thompson—Fred, the former Tennessee senator.

If there was any doubt to the emphasis that the former Bush administration Health and Human Services secretary has placed on the straw poll, signs posted in a pavilion at Noelridge Park promised supporters who signed up a "Free Trip to Ames!" and Thompson aides promised a plush air-conditioned bus ride to the event at the Iowa State University campus from Cedar Rapids.

But Thompson has already pulled the plug on one straw poll related event—an attempt to hold a block party in Ames the night before, with particular attention to the motorcyclists he has cultivated as a promoter of Milwaukee's Harley-Davidson. The campaign dropped the idea when Ames asked for money for security.

Counting upon some name recognition from serving 14 years as a neighboring governor who was perhaps best known for reforming his state's welfare system and dramatically paring its roles, Thompson isn't shy about making Illinois stories part of his conservative campaign repertoire.

Noting the economic climate in Wisconsin was so bad that then-Illinois Gov. Jim Thompson had posted signs on the border urging businesses to move south and asking that the last business leaving Wisconsin "turn out the lights," the former Wisconsin governor said he erected signs along I-90/94 that simply said, "Gov. Thompson wants you to bring your business to Wisconsin."

The Wisconsin Thompson claimed that the Illinois Thompson was peppered with questions wanting to know why an Illinois governor would tell businesses to move north.

Tommy Thompson also contended that some Illinois residents took advantage of what had been Wisconsin's generous welfare benefits.

"Some people from Chicago put a sign in the Greyhound bus depot: For $12.50 you could to Milwaukee, sign up for welfare, pick up your check, put it in a postal-patrons box, cash it, come back home on the same day," Thompson said. "They weren't even spending the money in Wisconsin. They were taking it back to Chicago."