Scott Walker, riding high in Iowa, faces (and ducks) questions about straw poll

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, left, talks with Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst before Ernst’s fundraising ride on Saturday in Des Moines, Iowa. (Photo: Charlie Neibergall/AP)

DES MOINES, Iowa — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was the picture of confidence, the only 2016 presidential hopeful out of 15 to ride a motorcycle next to this state’s rock star freshman senator, Joni Ernst.

Under a slightly cloudy Iowa sky he strode across a parking lot to his 814-pound Harley Davidson Road King, wearing a black leather jacket, blue jeans and steel-toed black boots. He looked past the pack of media scurrying around him to the hundreds of motorcycle riders standing near their bikes looking on from a distance.

He was asked, as he prepared to climb onto his bike, about the conundrum facing some Republican presidential candidates. There are 15 declared or likely candidates, but only 10 spots on the stage for the first debate in August, and to get on that stage, a candidate has to be in the top 10 in the national polls. That may mean some candidates have to prioritize national exposure, via Fox News and other means, over the face-to-face contact with voters, the retail politics that counts for so much in states like Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

Iowans in politics are worried about it. “I know here in Iowa that it is imperative that they are out knocking on doors and shaking hands and meeting people. So I hope they are able to do that,” said Ernst, the Republican who organized and headlined the motorcycle ride here that ended up at a pork roast in Boone, about 50 miles northeast of the capital. “We’re just going to have to use our time wisely.”

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad told Yahoo News the Republican Party should change the way it handles debates. “They ought to give everybody a chance. I don’t think they ought to arbitrarily just exclude anybody who isn’t in the top 10 in the polling at the time,” Branstad said.

None of this is a problem for Walker. He leads the polls in Iowa comfortably and is in the top tier of candidates in the national polls, so he is currently assured of a debate spot and can focus on meeting voters. And so when asked about the problem facing lower-tier candidates, along with voters in Iowa who want personal contact with the candidates, he shrugged it off. “I’ll leave that up to others,” he said.

He arrived on his motorcycle in Boone and sought out a woman named Sharie Johnson, who had ridden with her husband, Kevin, behind Ernst and Walker in the procession of about 300 motorcycles. In Des Moines, before the bikers started their ride, Johnson had mistaken Walker for Marcus Luttrell, the former Navy SEAL whose exploits in Afghanistan became a book and a movie, “Lone Survivor.” Luttrell was in Iowa on Saturday, supporting former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, another presidential candidate who is a close friend of Luttrell.

Walker whispered in Johnson’s ear that he knew who she thought he was and shared a laugh with her. Johnson and her husband were awestruck at Walker’s focus on them.

“He came and fixed our mistake,” Kevin said. “He’s a genius,” Sharie said.

But the anxiety that Iowans feel about their first-in-the-nation status being threatened is creating its own challenge for Walker, in large part because of his current popularity. In addition to worrying about the impact of the debates on retail politicking here, the Hawkeye State is wringing its hands about the fate of the Iowa straw poll.

The straw poll, traditionally conducted during the August before the Iowa caucuses, has served as a winnowing tool for voters in the state. It has forced candidates to compete with each other to demonstrate grassroots support by turning out volunteers and supporters and by giving speeches. In 2012, for example, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty ended his candidacy after a poor showing in the straw poll.

Now, however, a number of candidates have said they do not intend to participate in the straw poll. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee won the Iowa caucuses in 2008 and is running again in 2016. He does not need to prove anything to Iowa voters. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is skipping it because he does not want to create high expectations in the state.

Walker speaks during the Roast and Ride campaign event sponsored by Ernst at the Central Iowa Expo in Boone, Iowa. (Photo: Dave Kaup/Reuters)

Walker, however, has not indicated whether he will participate, and so Iowans who see the straw poll as an indication of their political status have begun to look to him to save the event.

“If Walker joins those who pass on participating in the 2015 Straw Poll, the event will essentially be dead,” wrote Craig Robinson, an Iowa-based conservative blogger.

Walker would risk losing momentum if he were to make an all-out push at the straw poll only to lose to someone like surgeon Ben Carson. And yet he risks alienating Iowans if he skips the event. Perhaps he would only disappoint a small number of operatives and activists in the state. One Republican political operative with roots in Iowa downplayed the importance of the straw poll to the average caucusgoer.

Yahoo News asked Walker on Saturday if he plans to take part in the straw poll.

“I think once somebody makes a determination on a campaign, we’ll do that, but we’re not a candidate right now. We’re just here to have some fun,” said Walker, who has yet to officially announce his candidacy.

Robinson noted on Twitter that Walker has already committed to events such as the Family Leadership Summit in mid-July.

On Saturday, however, Walker was in his element and the star of the show. Although Perry rode with his own group of about 100 bikers, including Luttrell, from Perry, Iowa, to Boone, Walker was the only presidential hopeful to ride a motorcycle with Ernst to the event in Boone.

And Walker received one of the warmest ovations from the crowd of about 2,000 when he spoke from a stage in front of a large barn. By the time the seven presidential hopefuls began speaking, most of the bikers had left, and the crowd was mostly made up of older Iowans who had set up camping chairs long before the bikers arrived.

Perry, who left office last year, talked about his record in Texas. “This is going to be a show-me-don’t-tell-me election,” he said. Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina talked about how America’s potential is being “crushed” by the federal government. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., complained about “too much debt and too many terrorists.”

“I’m going to reduce both,” Graham said. And like Perry, Graham took a subtle swipe at other would-be candidates with less experience, such as Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., by raising the specter of President Obama’s election when he was just a first-term senator.

“Next time you pick a commander-in-chief, make sure they know what the hell they are doing,” he said.

Rubio’s pitch to voters took on the issue of his youth and sought to turn it into an asset.

“We are living through a moment of transformation that we haven’t seen since the Industrial Revolution, and yet we have all these leaders, especially on the left, who are stuck in the past,” he said. “The time has come for us to turn the page.”

Carson and Huckabee both hit populist notes aimed at the conservative grassroots.

“We need to once again recognize that we are people of faith. Let’s not be ashamed of that. Let’s not let the secular progressives drive our faith away. Let’s not give away our beliefs for the sake of political correctness,” Carson said.

Huckabee slammed free-trade deals. “I hear they are great for the economy. But whose economy? Are they good for your economy?” Huckabee asked rhetorically. A few people in the crowd said no.

“I am not a globalist,” Huckabee said.

Huckabee was the only speaker to mention the coming Supreme Court decision on gay marriage, vowing that if the ruling legalizes same-sex marriage, conservatives “shall not surrender just because there is an opinion” from the court.