Iowa GOP Chair Steps Down

Rick Santorum supporters have attacked him lately over caucus results
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 31, 2012 10:58 AM CST
Iowa GOP Chair Steps Down
Matt Strawn is seen in this YouTube screenshot.   (YouTube)

Iowa GOP chairman Matt Strawn will step down this week, he announced in a YouTube video today, citing "competing priorities" in his personal, business, and political lives. What he didn't mention was the intense criticism he's been under from Rick Santorum supporters, who accuse him of intentionally refusing to acknowledge their candidate's victory in the Iowa caucuses, the Des Moines Register observes.

Strawn had hinted that he was considering stepping down even before caucus night, but after it calls for him to do so were intense. At a meeting of conservative leaders Saturday, some had even discussed mustering the central committee votes necessary to fire him. Strawn declared Romney as winner on caucus night, when he appeared to have won by eight votes. But when the official count showed Santorum up by 34 votes two and a half weeks later, Strawn said the race was too close to call. (More Matt Strawn stories.)

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