Frist '74 wins poll over GOP 2008 rivals

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist '74 (R-Tenn.) received the most support among 2008 Republican presidential hopefuls in a straw poll conducted by the Southern Republican Leadership Conference over the weekend.

Frist received 37 percent of the votes, while Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney finished second with 14 percent. President Bush, who cannot pursue a third term but received write-in votes nonetheless, finished in a tie for third with Sen. George Allen (R-Va.). Both received 10 percent.

Frist's win did not surprise analysts, as several noted that he had a "home-field advantage" over the rest of the candidates. Indeed, delegates from Tennessee, Frist's home state, represented 52 percent of voters, and 82 percent of Frist's votes came from his political constituents.

Though the poll has no direct influence on the 2008 election, Frist's and Romney's strong finishes will give them increased name recognition as the campaign approaches.

Other poll numbers have shown that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who ran against Bush in 2000, and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani are the most popular national candidates, though the two candidates finished fifth and 10th in the straw poll.

Giuliani did not attend the conference, and McCain encouraged delegates to vote for Bush as a sign of party loyalty to the president, who has faced increased criticism in recent weeks over security contracts for six U.S. ports that were awarded to a company based in the Middle East.

In his speech, Frist trumpeted popular conservative causes, such as fiscal responsibility and the removal of "activist judges."

Frist also criticized high-profile Democrats, including presumptive presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) and former presidential candidate and Democratic National Committee (DNC) chairman Howard Dean.

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"We know what we believe, we know where we stand and we know where we are going," Frist said. "They are the party of 'No.' "

DNC spokeswoman Karen Finney called Frist's victory "shocking" and described him as "the poster child for the Republican culture of corruption and incompetence," Reuters reported on Saturday.

Frist garners on-campus support as an alumnus, though "there doesn't seem to be a clear favorite," College Republicans president Alex Maugeri '07 said in an interview.

Maugeri, who is also an associate editor at The Daily Princetonian, said that the College Republicans generally support Frist, McCain and Allen.

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Many undergraduate conservatives backed the Senate majority leader during last year's Frist Filibuster, a protest in support of Senate Democrats' right to filibuster the president's judicial nominees. Frist had proposed a rule change that would have reduced the number of votes needed to end a filibuster from 60 to 51.

Others support Frist because of his work in recent months to get the president's two Supreme Court nominees confirmed.

"A lot of us believe that his efforts are the reason Sam Alito ['72] and John Roberts are on the Supreme Court," Maugeri said. "I believe that is his greatest accomplishment and I think most of our members would agree."