Former U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan won the 8th District DFL's first straw poll following a candidate forum on Saturday, but the other three candidates were against holding the poll in the first place.
One, former state Sen. Tarryl Clark, skipped the candidate forum because the straw poll was held.
Nolan received 21 of the 38 votes cast in Saturday's straw poll, which was held during a party fundraiser Saturday evening. Members of the DFL's central committee who attended the party's meeting Saturday afternoon were able to vote in the straw poll.
Daniel Fanning, the former Sen. Al Franken staffer who recently entered the race, received eight votes. Clark and Duluth City Council member Jeff Anderson received one each. Seven people either abstained from voting or were undecided, said Colleen Nardone, the Eighth District associate chair.
The four DFLers are running to take on freshman Republican Rep. Chip Cravaack, in what's shaping up to be the state's most competitive U.S. House race of 2012.
The Eighth District DFL didn't decide to hold the straw poll until its Saturday afternoon meeting, when its committee voted to hold the straw poll and on its format. Eighth District Chair Don Bye was opposed to the poll.
Clark's campaign manager Brandon Pinette said the campaign had told the committee weeks in advance that it would skip the candidate forum if a straw poll was held.
"We have always been against having a straw poll and believe the process should begin with the precinct caucuses in February not with a straw poll of 38 people in October," Pinette said in an e-mail.
