MICHELLE WILLARD, Post Staff Writer
Posted: Wednesday, October 22, 2008 10:37 am

City Cafe Straw Poll Results    President John McCain (R) 191 Barack Obama (D) 158   Senate Lamar Alexander (R) 127  Bob Tuke (D) 112  34th U.S. House  Bart Gordon (D) 106 Chris Baker (I) 41  16th State Senate  Jim Tracy (R) 147 Jean Ann Rogers (D) 122  34th State House Donna Rowland (R) 124 Dr. Rishi Saxena (D) 108 48th State House Tim Tipps (D) 126 Joe Carr (R) 116 49th State House Kent Coleman (D) 116 Rick Womick (R) 76  62nd State House  Curt Cobb (D) 84 Barbara Blanton (R) 51 The results are in and John McCain takes the City Café poll. The results of the straw poll for presidential and local office preference were announced on WGNS this morning. Perkins noted the poll has been about 96-97 percent accurate in local races percent and 98-99 percent accurate for national elections in the past 25 years. “There’s just such a massive cross section that comes through here,” he said. “I think it’s a good representation of the community.” But the reliable straw poll may be losing some of its predictive powers. For the August national primary and local general election, the poll forecast that former Rutherford County Property Assessor John Barbee would beat challenger Bill Boner. Barbee received 46 of 57 votes or 80 percent of straw ballots cast. But voters said differently and elected Boner, who showed strong support through both city and county precincts. The straw polls indicate a Republican lean in most offices, including Republican McCain’s 191-158 win over Democratic challenger Barack Obama. But overall the ticket was split between party candidates with incumbents holding on against their rivals. City Café patrons also chose the Republican nominee in the races for the national Seante, 16th District of the State Senate, 34th House District and 62nd House District. Notably, voters chose Democrat Tim Tipps over Republican Joe Carr for the 48th House District seat, which was held by John Hood for six terms. But, the cafe poll earlier missed on Carr's win in the GOP primary, predicting his challenger would win. Rep. Bart Gordon is running for his 13th term as the representative from the 6th Congressional District against independent candidate Chris Baker. Michelle Willard can be contacted at 615-869-0816 or mwillard@murfreesboropost.com.