Ron Paul's second-place finish is a sign he'll be a continued 2012 presence. Organization powers Ron Paul to 2nd

AMES, Iowa — Ron Paul’s narrow-second place finish at the Ames straw poll was a demonstration of the Texas congressman’s intensified organization and a message retooled to appeal to Iowa conservatives — and a clear sign that he’s going to be a continued presence going into the 2012 election.

Paul got 4,671 votes, losing to Rep. Michele Bachmann by just 152 votes, and placing well ahead of former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, whose months of work and major investment delivered him just 2,293 votes.


Paul’s supporters were hoping a win here would prove their legitimacy, and Paul’s entourage came armed with statements from previous presidential candidates offering exhortations about just how important winning the straw poll is.

“Obviously,” senior Paul strategist Doug Wead told POLITICO Saturday when asked if an Ames victory would mean more than other straw poll wins. “We have the statements of all these other candidates, Romney on down about the importance of the Ames vote. Even those who are saying it’s not important now, they’re on the record saying it’s important.”

“Relatively speaking, yes that true,” Paul told POLITICO after his speech here when asked if winning at Ames was more important than previous polls he’s topped. “It can give you a boost in morale, and encouragement — for me, it’s always a vote for the endorsement of the views of the concerns of liberty.”

Paul’s tent, after all, was on the same grass where Mitt Romney’s was outside the Hilton Coliseum in 2007 when the former Massachusetts governor prioritized the straw poll and placed first.

This year, Romney chose not to compete, unlike Paul, who deepened his organization here. Led by senior staffers Jesse Benton and John Tate, the Paul campaign developed methodical plans to reach out to specific groups of straw poll goers. At restaurants, for example, Paul supporters were told to leave cards in with their checks: “As president, Ron Paul will fight to exempt hard-earned tips from any income or employment tax,” the cards read.

“It used to be, ‘this movement is like herding cats,’” Wead said. “But now it’s a finely tuned operation.”

Wead pointed to the signs posted inside the Coliseum: Paul signs were everywhere, far outnumbering all the other candidates. There were specific organization rules in place for putting them up — only 8 staffers were allowed, and campaigns had two hours to post them — and the Paul team was done in 30 minutes while others scrambled for space.

But the most important piece of Paul’s Iowa operation was outreach to the social conservatives who play such a critical role in the state’s Republican electorate.

“The missing link for us, the outreach to evangelicals, which is so key to South Carolina and the south — we’re filling it,” said Wead, speaking to POLITICO in between announcements on Paul’s stage.

Wead told POLITICO that the outreach included mailing 5,000 DVDs of Paul to pastors in Iowa before Saturday’s events. And it relied heavily on a new team of evangelicals who are backing Paul. They include Wead himself and also Brian Jacobs, who used to work with Rev. Billy Graham. Jacobs spent the days before the Straw Poll calling pastors throughout Iowa.

And when their candidate took the stage to speak to the reporters and the crowd assembled in the arena here, his opening remarks weren’t about the Fed or monetary policy or anything that referenced the “sliding dollar,” as the children’s play slide outside his tent was labeled.

Instead, he talked about abortion.

Paul’s campaign, he said, is usually “identified with the cause of liberty…[but] there is something that precedes liberty and that is life,” he said, launching into a graphic story about watching an abortion while he was doing an OB/GYN rotation in medical school. “The prime reason that government exists in a free society is to protect liberty, but also to protect life. And I mean all life,” Paul said.

At the sprawling area where Paul was handing out hot dogs, offering children stickers and balloons, and handing out copies of the Constitution, the crowd skewed young: There were college students dressed in Ron Paul-logoed minidresses; there was a dunk tank; and the atmosphere inside the tent occasionally felt like a big college party. Parading across the stage were members of Ron Paul’s family — one discussed the Ron Paul cookbook — and Paul’s son, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, took the stage with his father after the speech here.

Paul supporters’ usual loud enthusiasm was on display as the results were announced, as red-shirted supporters filled the stands inside the arena. At first, there was silence — and then they started a loud chant of “Ron Paul! Ron Paul! Ron Paul”

Whether those supporters can drive Paul to a strong finish in the Iowa caucuses later this month is still an open question — but his staff has said all along that the caucus structure works to his advantage. And that, one longtime Iowa Republican operative said, is what Paul proved in Ames today.

“Paul actually did what Pawlenty was trying to do — and that shows he could make a serious play in the caucuses,” the Republican said.

Ever since Paul won just 1,305 votes in the 2007 contest in Ames, Paul’s ardent core of supporters have become obsessed with straw polls, going all out to win smaller contests at Republican conferences as a way to prove to the media that the libertarian Texas congressman is a legitimate presidential contender.

They have been successful — Paul won both the Republican Leadership Conference straw poll in New Orleans this year and the Conservative Political Action Committee poll in Washington in February — but they haven’t been able to sway the media narrative that paints Paul as a candidate with intense but limited support from Republicans whose views are outside the mainstream.

For Paul’s ardent supporters, that’s the rub: While the media have been covering Pawlenty as a legitimate contender with a plausible path to the White House, Paul’s presidential bid has been largely ignored press.

“The point is: Why are you here?” Wead asked, referring to the hundreds of national reporters who have descended on Ames this weekend. “You’re here because it’s important. If you quit coming, we’ll quit coming. Until then, this matters.”