Middletown Straw Poll: Night Two....

CT Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz and Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch at the 2nd night of The Middletown Straw Poll , January 26,
at Holy Trinity Church, Middletown

Although sparsely attended compared with the previous night's function , this event featured a more animated crowd, entertained with political oratory, rock music and children dancing. Once again the Ron Paul supporters were front and center in numbers and enthusiasm as this was a bipartisan event, whereas the previous straw poll at the Middletown Elk's Lodge was a Republican only event.


The beautiful sanctuary of Middletown's Holy Trinity Church could have accommodated many more folks than the 75 or so that showed up. The straw poll ballots offered 1st, 2nd and 3rd choices but after all the ballots were consolidated and tabulated the final result was Ron Paul 23 and Hillary Clinton 21.

Below is raw video from the evening which runs about 15 minutes:

The first Ron Paul speaker was Joshua Katz. (pictured above) Tom Sheehan, a later speaker for Ron Paul made an impassioned speech about the sanctity of our constitution. Hillary Clinton was represented by two speakers, most notably by Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch. (pictured at top) Mike Huckabee was represented, as he was last evening, by William Landers. John Killian, who organized the event, read a short statement about the Obama candidacy while later in the evening a more impassioned speech for Obama was made by Bradley Spahn. Middletown city council member Earle Roberts spoke for the John McCain candidacy.There were no presenters for Mitt Romney, winner of last evening's straw poll, or Rudy Giuliani. The corporate sponser of the event was NEOS, L.L.C., a software consulting firm from Manchester, CT , whose owner, Ernst Renner, presided as M.C.

Special mention must be made of the presence this evening of the lovely, gracious, and animated Susan Bysiewicz, Connecticut's Secretary of the State. Her stand up, hand and arm ballet, by way of explaining the state election requirements for the Feb 5 primary was beautiful and effective. A great many Connecticut registered voters are unaffiliated with a party so Ms. Bysiewicz brought with her stacks of registration forms to enable anyone present to enroll in a political party. I succumbed to her blandishments and switched from independent to party enrolled.

This blog also appears today at Right of Middle.