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Posted: August 10, 2007 11:52 AM
Thompson Pleads With Iowa Voters
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Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson’s campaign sent a desperate message to supporters Wednesday asking all eligible Iowans to make the trip to the Ames straw poll Saturday to vote for the candidate.

“Without your help and support this week, Tommy Thompson’s campaign cannot go on,” the campaign wrote. It might sound like typical political rhetoric, but in Thompson’s case it may also be true. Thompson’s campaign has faltered — he’s raised less than $900,000 so far — and he’s acknowledged that he needs to come first or second in the straw poll to continue.

Thompson has crisscrossed the state for the past month, and last Tuesday met his goal of visiting all of its 99 counties. In towns and cities across the state, he’s practiced his brand of personal politics. He tends to work in the names, professions and other details of people he meets into his speeches, according to a profile in the LaCrosse Tribune.

“That’s Politics 101, which I taught myself and which most people don’t do,” he told the paper.

Thompson is confident that his connections with Iowa voters will pay off in the straw poll. “It’s going remarkably well,” he told the LaCrosse Tribune. “Remarkably well, since we’re doing it on a shoestring budget.

But most analysts don’t share his optimism. A recent University of Iowa poll of Iowa voters found that only 2.1 percent of Republicans would vote for Thompson if the election were held today.