Ron Paul wins straw poll in Barack Obama's home state

Republican presidential hopeful and Texas Congressman Ron Paul won convincingly against his rivals in a statewide straw poll in Illinois – the home state of President Barack Obama.

Just a week after winning the Iowa straw poll, in which he won 82 percent of total votes cast, Paul was declared the winner of a week-long Illinois straw poll after taking command of 52 percent of total votes cast both online and offline. Paul, who is reportedly not getting enough coverage from the mainstream media, bested more popular GOP frontrunners Mitt Romney, Herman Cain and Texas Governor Rick Perry. Cain settled for second place with 15 percent of online votes and 29 percent of the in-person votes (18 percent overall) while Romney finished third place with seven percent of online votes and 35 percent of votes cast in-person (14 percent overall.) Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich finished fourth with nine percent overall while Perry dropped to fifth with just 2.5 percent of combined online and in-person votes. Cain and Perry got entangled with separate debacles this week which might have affected their performance at the said straw poll. Sexual harassment allegations against Cain surfaced throughout the week while Perry's unusual animated speech at New Hampshire made headlines as pundits wonder if the governor was drunk. Scott Davis, Illinois State Chair for the Ron Paul 2012 Presidential campaign, was pleased with the results. “This straw poll victory demonstrates the groundswell of support for Ron Paul and his winning message, as well as the organizational muscle presidential candidates require,” Davis said.