Snitker Defeats Crist, Meek in Straw Poll

Feb. 17, 2010 - PRLog -- ORLANDO - Roughly 1,000 people braved frigid, windy conditions Saturday outside of City Hall to speak with candidates and to cast their ballot in the Orlando Tea Party Hob Nob and Staw Poll. Libertarian U.S. Senate candidate Alexander Snitker energized the crowd with a passionate speech on the topics of the Fair Tax, sound monetary policy, and the Constitution. Snitker then shocked the organizers by defeating both Republican Gov. Charlie Crist and Democrat challenger Kendrick Meek in the straw poll, coming in second only to Republican Marco Rubio.

The poll lines stretched for roughly a city block for over two hours, and the poll was kept open longer than expected to accomodate the high demand. Snitker, a 34-year-old former Marine and political newcomer, seemed happy about the strong showing, but was also quick to focus on the future.

"The straw poll results are very encouraging, and our team learned two things from it," said Snitker, "We learned that we've come a very long way running a strictly grass-roots, liberty-focused campaign. But it also shows that we have a long way to go before we can start cleaning up Washington and restoring our Constitutional republic."

The event was organized by the Orlando Tea Party and Tea Party Patriots Live radio show on 660AM WORL. The straw poll was conducted on optical ballot scanning machines, and was overseen by Bill Cowels, Orange County Supervisor of Elections.

"Considering the massive funding and the political machinery that the Democrats and GOP have brought to bear, that a Libertarian running a grass-roots campaign could defeat the Democrat front-runner and the sitting Republican Governor...it's a terrific outcome," said Phil Laibe, regional chairman of the Florida Libertarian Party.

After the event, WORL radio hosts Phil Russo and Jason Hoyt both agreed that Snitker was the one candidate that stood out among all the rest. "He really hit it out of the park," said Russo, and added that Snitker and the Libertarian Party had a huge following at the event.