I just got back from the Illinois Straw Poll, here are the results:

1. Mitt Romney -- 40.35%
2. Fred Thompson -- 19.96%
3. Ron Paul -- 18.87%
4. Rudy Giuliani -- 11.61%
5. John McCain -- 4.12%
6. Mike Huckabee -- 3.04%
7. Sam Brownback -- 1.08%
8. Duncan Hunter -- .65%
9. Tom Tancredo -- .33%

I have no idea of the number of votes cast although I would guess the total number of people at the picnic was 3-400. It was pouring rain, so I am sure this could account partially for the low attendance. It was at the Illinois State Fair, and the fairgrounds were empty. To his credit, Craig Romney stood out in the pouring rain and welcomed visitors and voters to the picnic, and I have a good interview of that.

While there I had the chance to meet Race42008 commenter "Bjalder" and family. I will have some videos up of the event tomorrow over at www.illinoisreview.com. I will post a couple interviews here that I did of Ron Paul supporters. It takes a while to download.

Now one point to make. I am 100% positive the Fred's campaign tried to organize for this. It didn't work. And McCain had a terrible showing, of course, not as bad as Tancredo, but still pretty bad.

Andy Mckenna, State GOP Chair had this to say:

"Congratulations to Mitt Romney, whose strong showing today indicates he has begun to put together a strong statewide organization. There's no question that Illinois' demographics closely match those of the United States and this could be an indication as to whom Illinois voters are leaning toward this coming February."