Ames, IA was not the only far-flung place where organizers decided to host a straw poll to get attention.

   Republican Rudy Giuliani and Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Edwards got to claim bragging rights from the much-less expensive and flashy straw poll during Whitefield, NH's Community Day on Saturday.

    Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney spent as much as $450 a vote to win convincingly in Iowa but this down home affair in the first-primary state cost nothing for campaigns to compete.

  
“There were no candidates, surrogates, signs or even stickers.  Just real people taking a few minutes break from their supper to participate in grassroots democracy.” said Jeff Woodburn, a former State Democratic Party chairman and event organizer.

   Former House Speaker Harold Burns, a Whitefield Republican, oversaw the balloting.

   Giuliani got 33 percent from Republican voters to 22 percent each for both Senator John McCain and former Governor Mitt Romney.
   Among Democrats, Hillary Clinton and
Edwards tied at 33 percent with Governor Bill Richarson getting 287 percent to place third.

   Regarding full disclosure, Woodburn is a state co-chairman of Richardson's campaign.

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