Fred Smith, Richard Burr and Spence Campbell were the big winners of a straw poll the Henderson County Republican Party held at its Lincoln Lunch on Saturday.

Smith had 81 votes as the top vote getter for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. Bob Orr had 36, Bill Graham received 14 and Pat McCrory garnered 10 votes among the Republican faithful that turned out for Saturday's event.

The top choice among straw poll voters for the Republican 11th District Congressional nomination was Campbell with 94 votes compared to Asheville City Councilman Carl Mumpower, who got 33 votes, and John Armor in third place with 15 votes.

Richard Burr was the person the majority of the straw poll voters thought should be Republican presidential nominee John McCain's pick for the vice presidential slot on the Republican ticket in 2008, with 43 votes cast for him. Former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee came in second with 22 votes, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice received 12 votes, S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford had 11 votes and former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney got 10 votes.

Smith's first-place straw poll finish in Henderson County points to the success of the candidate's grass roots campaign thus far, said George Erwin, Smith's Western North Carolina campaign manager.

"We've tried to build a grass roots campaign and our plan has always been to go into all 100 counties and that's what we've been doing," he said Sunday. "We won the straw poll in Rutherford County Saturday night and also Catawba's. I think we've put together the strongest grass roots campaign in the state and I think the straw poll results show that."

Henderson County Republican Party Chairman Robert Danos said he was pleased by the strong turnout in the straw poll.

"With 142 Republican voters, party leaders, and activists casting ballots, this straw poll was by far the biggest (50% plus more) in WNC so far this primary season," he said. "Performing strong with this large a sampling of area Republicans is certainly a strong gauge of candidates' support and organization."

Henderson County Republicans topped the number of voters in straw polls in Buncombe County (85) and McDowell County (87), which had been the largest such events in the 11th District until this weekend, Danos said. Same-day events in Catawba County had 63 Republicans participating and Transylvania did not do a straw poll.

No other WNC counties have held straw polls, he said.

The article above by Leigh Kelley was published in the Henderson Times-News and is available online here.