Texas Rep. Ron Paul won an annual straw poll in Washington this week that may say more about the organizing capacity of his supporters than the tastes of Republican primary voters as a whole.

Mr. Paul, a libertarian favorite whose backers packed the Marriot Wardman Park Hotel near the zoo, won 30% of the vote in the annual Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, an early frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, came in second, with 23%.

Those results mirrored last year’s straw poll, said Tony Fabrizio, the Republican pollster who tabulates the ballots.

The bad news for each of the prospective candidates is that 43% of the 3,742 conservative activists who voted in the straw poll expressed some dissatisfaction with the field. Voters also expressed grave skepticism that the new Republican majority in the House would accomplish what they sent new GOP lawmakers to do — repeal President Barack Obama’s new health-care law and pare the deficit.

“Those should be disquieting results for members of Congress,” said David Keene, the outgoing chairman of the American Conservatives Union, which organizes the annual event.

The three-day confab gave 2012 hopefuls a chance to test applause lines and pay their respects to the conservative activists who play an influential role in the nomination process.