This article originally provided by The Charleston Gazette

February 6, 2008

Obama would win state, straw poll finds

Barack Obama would run away with West Virginia's presidential vote, if an Internet straw poll conducted Tuesday night by two local groups were the real thing.

While voters across the nation cast ballots in the Super Tuesday primaries, more than 1,200 people cast straw ballots for their favorite Democrat, Republican and Green Party candidates at www.votewv.net, run by Patriots for Peace and the West Virginia Citizen Action Group.

"We felt we were being left out of the presidential primaries and Super Tuesday. So we wanted to give people their own Super Tuesday," said the Rev. Jim Lewis of Patriots for Peace.

Obama, a Democratic senator from Illinois, won 344 votes - more than all Republicans combined. He was trailed by Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., who has dropped out of the race.

On the Republican side, longtime Texas Rep. Ron Paul - who finished last in West Virginia's actual GOP convention Tuesday - finished first in the Patriots for Peace/CAG poll, with 32 percent of the Republican vote. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney finished second, followed by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (West Virginia's actual convention winner) and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

"We are trying to get people interested in this election, especially in the connection between the war and the economy," Lewis said.

"Most of the media has been saying it is the war or the economy.  We are saying the two issues are tied together."