Cain upsets Perry in Florida Republican straw poll

 ORLANDO, Fla., (Reuters) – Former pizza executive  Herman Cain surprised rival Rick Perry with an upset victory yesterday in a Republican presidential straw poll in Florida,  dealing a disappointing loss to the Texas governor two days  after a shaky debate performance.  
 Perry, leading in the polls for the 2012 U.S. Republican  presidential nomination to run against Democratic President  Barack Obama, had needed a victory in what was an early test of  strength to salve the wounds left over from a debate with his  rivals on Thursday in which he struggled.  
 Instead, former Godfather’s Pizza executive Cain, who is  far behind the two top-tier candidates Perry and Mitt Romney in  national polls, won with 37 percent of 2,657 votes cast.  
 Perry was a distant second at 15 percent, just ahead of  Romney, who won 14 percent despite not participating in the  poll. Further back were Rick Santorum, Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich,  Jon Huntsman and Michele Bachmann.  
 Florida’s straw poll is nonbinding and significant only in  terms of showing a candidate’s strength in the state. State  contests to pick the nominee do not start until next year.  
 The Perry camp shrugged off the results.  
 “Cain won, we still have work to do,” said Perry spokesman  Mark Miner. “It’s his day. The conservative message won today.  We’ve been in this race for five weeks. We’re going to continue  campaigning hard.”  
 Miner put the focus on Romney’s third-place finish, saying  Perry’s chief rival has been running for president for years  and is still not breaking through.  
 “It’s more of what happened to Mitt Romney. He’s not going  to be crowned president of the United States. He’s going to  have to work for it. And after five and a half years he once  again got rejected in a key state in the Republican primary  process,” Miner said.  
 Perry created doubts among some conservatives at a  Republican candidates debate on Thursday, which he admitted on  Friday was not his best performance. He was criticized by his  rivals for a Texas policy that allows children of illegal  immigrants to pay in-state tuition rates at Texas colleges.  
 ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION  
 “Perry doesn’t stand for our constitutional values,” said  delegate Kris Anne Hall, who voted for Cain. “Perry doesn’t  stand up against illegal immigration.”  
 Perry surrogate Michael Williams, addressing the straw poll  delegates on Saturday before the vote, sought to do some damage  control for the Texas governor, who had addressed an Orlando  breakfast earlier before campaigning in Michigan.  
 “We’re not electing a debater-in-chief, we’re electing a  commander-in-chief,” said Williams, adding that no Texas  illegal immigrant had received a handout for a free education.  
 Cain, who promotes himself as a pragmatic problem-solver  with a clear tax reform plan, eagerly welcomed the victory.  “This is a sign of our growing momentum and my candidacy that  cannot be ignored,” Cain said after his win.  
 Most political analysts give him no chance of winning the  nomination.  
 But Florida’s Republican Party noted that, since 1979,  every winner of the Florida straw poll has gone on to become  the nominee. Senator John McCain won it in the 2008 cycle and  defeated Romney to become the nominee.  
 Florida, the most populous of the presidential swing  states, is a critical test for both Republicans and Democrats.  The Florida vote was so close in the 2000 election that it led  to a ballot recount battle between Democrat Al Gore and  Republican George W. Bush, who was ruled the winner.  
 Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, and Bachmann  chose not to compete in the straw poll but their names were put  on the ballot since they took part in the debate and spoke to  delegates in Orlando.  
 Perry issued a statement after the straw poll results were  revealed that was clearly aimed at Romney.  
 “Floridians and voters nationally want a candidate who is  clear on the issues and talks honestly about the future, not  someone who takes multiple sides of an issue and changes views  every election season,” Perry said.  
 Romney also held off from directly targeting Perry in a  speech later on Saturday in Michigan. Instead, he took aim at  Obama and made his case against Perry indirectly.  
 Romney called for strict measures to stop illegal  immigrants, and echoed his contention that the country needs a  businessman like himself, not a career politician like Obama or  Perry, to solve U.S. economic problems.  
 “Those skills are what are needed in America today,” said  Romney, the multimillionaire founder of private equity firm  Bain Capital.