Tommy Thompson - former governor of Wisconsin - just dropped out of the GOP presidential campaign, and now his big brother Ed Thompson is said to have endorsed GOP candidate Ron Paul (R-Tex). Wikipedia had this to say about Ed Thompson:
“Ed Thompson (born December 25, 1944 in Elroy, Wisconsin) was the United States Libertarian Party candidate for Governor of Wisconsin in 2002 . He received 11% of the vote. He was elected mayor of Tomah, Wisconsin in April, 2000 with 58% of the vote. His older brother, Tommy Thompson, was previously Governor of Wisconsin and United States Secretary of Health and Human Services.”
“Ed’s endorsement will certainly help them in Wisconsin,” said one source close to the campaign. “He’s very well known there, along with his brother, and has great name recognition. The announcement may come as soon as today." The Ron Paul campaign is also expecting some other significant endorsements in the near future, according to this source.
In addition to upcoming endorsements, the Ron Paul campaign is expecting good news from some upcoming straw polls. August is turning out to be a month of straw polling for the GOP presidential race, with polls taking place in Indiana, Illinois, Texas and Alabama among other states. Ron Paul has recently won some local straw polls, including one in Georgia.
Sources close to the campaign say that Ron Paul can expect to do well in Illinois, Alabama and perhaps Texas. Any state or region where the GOP is not charging a great deal for the opportunity to vote, or where the voting is not set up to “advantage the old guard," Ron Paul is said to have a good chance of winning or placing fairly high.
As regards the recent straw poll in Iowa, Ron Paul’s fifth place finish was not only a victory, given how poorly the national polls continue to rank him, it was also a blow to the front runner Mitt Romney. GOP campaign sources say that while Romney admits to spending over $2 million in Iowa, the amount may have been even higher, especially when one adds in his media purchases – radio and television spots that ran continuously for the past month.
“He had maybe 500 employees working his tent alone on Saturday,” says one Iowa Straw Poll attendee. “And the scuttlebutt was that he purchased close to 10,000 tickets but only received 4,500 or so votes. That’s not a resounding show of support.” Ron Paul, on the other hand, is said to have spent only about $250,000 in Iowa, or less than 10 percent of Romney.