Election News: Week in Review for January 23rd, 2011

The news just keeps coming from potential Republican 2012 candidates and there have been many stories this past week you might have missed. Here is a rundown on what’s going on around the 2012 water cooler.

Mitt Romney easily won the New Hampshire Republican Straw Poll taken this week which isn’t much of a surprise given his previously strong support in the Granite State.

Reuters reports:

(Reuters) – Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney easily won a poll of several hundred Republican delegates Saturday about whom they would choose to take on Democrat Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential election.

The poll was held at the New Hampshire Republican State Committee’s annual meeting in Derry, by television station WMUR-TV and ABC News, as a way of finding out which potential candidates were generating an early buzz.

Also at the meeting, conservative Tea Party activist Jack Kimball beat Juliana Bergeron to be New Hampshire’s new state Republican Party chairman — an outcome that could influence presidential campaigning in the state.

Romney won 35 percent of the poll, trouncing Texas Congressman Ron Paul, with 11 percent, former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, with 8 percent, and 2008 vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who took 7 percent.

Strong showing for Romney, however, he will have to compete well in Iowa and South Carolina as well which gave him trouble in 2008.

Rudy Giuliani stated this week that he’s leaving the door open for a possible 2012 run.

First Read reports:

Rudy’s leaving the door open for a presidential run. On CNBC’s “Kudlow Report,” Giuliani was asked, “Will you take a look at 2012, there are lots of rumors in New York City?” Giuliani responded: “I will take a look at 2012. It’s really a question of, can I play a useful role? Would I have a chance of getting the nomination? Those are things that I’ll have to evaluate as the year goes along.” KUDLOW: “But the door is open, that’s what I’m hearing from you tonight?” GIULIANI: “Yes, yes, Absolutely Larry.”

Giuliani has some wide-ranging support among fiscal hawks yet he had a great deal of trouble with socially conservative voters given his more liberal social views. Giuliani would likely have the same issues he had in 2008 running in Republican primaries where his credentials will come into question.

Mike Huckabee says he’ll be waiting until this summer to decide whether or not he’ll mount a presidential run in 2012.

Christian Post reports:

Huckabee was at The King’s College in New York City Friday where he was interviewed by Marvin Olasky, the college’s provost and host of the Distinguished Visitor Series.

During the Q&A session that followed, a student asked why Republicans and conservatives spend a year and half discussing the presidential election if Republicanism is supposed to be about small, local governments, prompting Huckabee to open up about his political plans for 2012.

“That’s one of the reason I’ve told people that if I do choose to run, it’s not going to be until much, much later in the process,” responded Huckabee, a Republican presidential candidate in the 2008 election. “[It will be] probably sometime in the latter part of the summer of this year, if at all.”

I’m not convinced that Huckabee will even run in 2012. He’s got a sweet gig at Fox News and he may be of the mindset that saving a run until 2016 would be wiser if he believes Obama could win reelection. We’ll keep following this one.