Baker wins GOP straw poll in U.S. Senate race

The seven announced GOP candidates for the U.S. Senate and their throngs of supporters assembled at the Arlington Hotel in Hot Springs for a “straw poll” vote.

Such votes require a person to purchase ticket to vote, and the candidates each try to get their supporters to buy tickets and show up to vote. The vote is in many respects a test of the ability of the candidates to effectively marshal their resources.

Roby Brock, The City Wire’s content partner through his TalkBusiness.net publication, reported that the Arkansas Sen. Gilbert Baker, R-Conway, won with 35% of the vote. Little Rock businessman Curtis Coleman placed second with 33% and former Army officer Conrad Reynolds placed third with 23%.

Stanley Reed and Jim Holt, who have mentioned an interest in the race, did not participate in the straw poll.


The candidates each gave 7 minutes speeches, with Baker touting recent poll numbers, which have shown him to be competitive or leading U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., in a general election match-up.



“I’m proven and battle tested,” he said. “I will raise the money to beat Blanche Lincoln and move Arkansas from a liberal Democrat [seat] to a conservative Republican one.”

Coleman called the national debt “a clear and present danger” stressing that the “cost of government has gotten too big because government has gotten too big.”



“We must reduce the cost of government by reducing the size of government,” said Coleman. “We don’t need a government that lives within its means. We need a government that lives within our means.”

The outcome was an important point of reference for the state’s GOP, which is flooded with volunteers to challenge incumbent Democrat Blanche Lincoln. For the candidates who fared poorly today with single digit totals, they will have to re-evaluate their commitment to the race.

Link here for more comments from the candidates, and link here for Brock’s analysis of the outcome.