Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina ended up at the top of the Western Conservative Summit’s presidential straw poll Sunday in Denver — though political analysts debated how much of a boost the vote may give the candidates.
Carson, a retired surgeon, won the straw poll for the second year in a row with 224 votes to beat out former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, who received 201 votes.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was third with 192 votes, and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz was next with 100.
While most national polls have Jeb Bush as the front-runner, the former Florida governor finished 14th out of 18 candidates on the GOP straw poll ballot Sunday.
He got just four votes out of 871 that were cast — that’s one less than California Rep. Nancy Pelosi received on the ballot’s field of Democrats.
Straw polls have proved unreliable. In 2011, Herman Cain received 48 percent of the votes in the summit’s straw poll to eventual Republican nominee Mitt Romney’s 10 percent.
Just this month, the Iowa Republican Party killed off its straw poll after 36 years, citing its cost and flagging interest from candidates.
The straw poll had picked just one eventual president, George W. Bush in 1999.
“You have to keep them in perspective,” said veteran political strategist Dick Wadhams, a former chairman of the Colorado Republican Party. “But I don’t think you can totally dismiss them, either.”
Wadhams said the real winner Sunday was Fiorina, who has been building momentum at similar conservative events across the country. Her showing in Colorado will prove a boost to her campaign, Wadhams predicted.
“This shows movement toward her,” he said.
Amy Runyon-Harms, executive of the liberal group ProgressNow Colorado, didn’t put a lot of stock in Sunday’s outcome.
“November 2016 is still a long way away, and the people down at that conference don’t reflect the rest of America,” she said of the social conservatives, Tea Party members, representatives of the religious right and GOP activists.
Still, with Colorado a key swing state for presidential hopefuls, a nod at the Western Conservative Summit in Denver gets attention and creates traction, said John Andrews, chairman of the summit and director of the Centennial Institute at Colorado Christian University, which puts on the event.
Andrews pointed to how businessman Cain’s campaign took off, for a while, after he won the straw poll in 2011. More than 100 members of the media attended the summit.
Carson proved last year he had appeal in conservative circles, Andrews said.
“It would be a stretch to say there’s a cause and effect of how he’s surprising people with his organizing and fundraising right now, ” he said.
Joyce Harrison of Denver said she voted for Carson because she thinks he can beat Hillary Rodham Clinton once the GOP field of candidates narrows and Americans hear him speak.
“We’re a long time from Election Day, and people just haven’t gotten to hear him like we have,” she said, wearing a blue T-shirt proclaiming Ronald Reagan would have attended the Western Conservative Summit.
There were 294 votes cast in the Democratic race on the straw ballot Sunday.
Former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb was the favorite of the conservatives in Denver with 83 votes, outpacing Clinton, a former Secretary of State, with 48.
Sunday’s keynote speaker, Sen. Cory Gardner, was introduced by Andrews as “our hero.”
Gardner energized Republican voters in Colorado last November and ousted incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Udall.
On Sunday, Gardner’s call for conservatives to keep the faith, both religious and political, drew a standing ovation.
Gardner said outside the ballroom before his speech that for GOP presidential candidates to have appeal in a swing state such as Colorado, they must stick to their principles and attract a wider swath of voters to common ground with conservatives.
“We have to make sure we’re talking to the American people about the values we share,” he said. “That’s getting people back to work, that’s strengthening families and that’s opening up opportunities they feel have been cut off, because they’ve been out of work or because of cuts in pay.
“When we do that, we’re going to have the opportunity to win again in 2016, I believe that.”
Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174, jbunch@denverpost.com or twitter.com/joeybunch
Western Conservative Summit straw poll results
Republicans
Former surgeon Ben Carson, 224
Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, 201
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, 192
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, 100
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, 34
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, 24
Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, 20
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, 16
Businessman Donald Trump, 15
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, 13
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, 9
Colorado Christian University president Bill Armstrong, 6
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, 4
Ohio Gov. John Kasich, 4
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, 3
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, 3
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, 3.
George Pataki, 0
Democrats
Former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb, 83
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, 48
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, 42
Vice President Joe Biden, 39
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, 21
Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, 17
Former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee, 16
First lady Michelle Obama, 15
Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, 8.
California Rep. Nancy Pelosi, 5
