Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, widely regarded as the front-runner in the Republican presidential race, has decided not to participate in this year's Iowa Straw Poll nor any other early tests before the 2012 primaries and caucuses, his campaign announced Thursday.
By skipping the Aug. 13 straw poll, Romney offered the clearest signal yet that he may not compete vigorously in Iowa, home to the first-in-the-nation caucuses and where social conservatives are traditionally influential.
"Our campaign has made the decision to not participate in any straw polls, whether it's in Florida, Iowa, Michigan or someplace else," Romney campaign manager Matt Rhoades said. "We respect the straw poll process. In the last presidential campaign, we were both strengthened as an organization and learned some important lessons by participating in them. This time we will focus our energies and resources on winning primaries and caucuses."
Romney won the straw poll in 2007 in Ames. But he ended up losing the more-important caucuses, where delegates to the Republican National Convention are decided, to Mike Huckabee, the runner-up in the straw poll.
The straw poll can be a costly effort for campaigns -- four years ago, Romney spent millions of dollars and months of effort toward the event -- and a poor performance there this time could have diminished his standing in the Republican field. Romney still plans to compete in the caucuses in February.
PALIN E-MAILS COME OUT TODAY
The state of Alaska on Friday will release thousands of Sarah Palin's e-mails from her first two years as governor, a disclosure that has taken on national prominence as she flirts with a run for the presidency.
The e-mails were first requested during the 2008 White House race by citizens and news organizations as they vetted a GOP vice presidential nominee whose political experience included less than one term as governor of Alaska and a term as mayor of the small town of Wasilla. The nearly three-year delay has been attributed largely to the sheer volume of the e-mails and the flood of requests.
Alaska is releasing the more than 24,000 pages of e-mails in paper form only and asking news organizations to pick up the boxes of documents in Juneau, Alaska's capital, accessible only by air or water.
