Mackinac Island, Mich. — Mitt Romney won a straw poll of about 700 Michigan Republican Party activists at a weekend conference on Mackinac Island, and Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, who is not even running for president, topped the ballot as the vice-president pick.
Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, is a Michigan native and son of George Romney, who was Michigan’s governor during the 1960s and is fondly remembered by many Republican Party leaders today.
Romney won 51 percent of the 681 votes cast in an unscientific poll sponsored by the National Journal and the National Association of Home Builders.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who addressed the conference Saturday afternoon, took 17 percent of the vote.
Businessman Herman Cain finished third, with 9 percent of the vote. Cain on Saturday won a straw poll of Florida Republican activists, beating Perry in a surprise result.
In the Michigan vice-presidential poll, Rubio received 23 percent of the 481 votes cast.
Rubio is not involved in the presidential campaign, and he did not visit the conference or have a visible organizational presence.
Cain finished second in the vice-presidential poll with 14 percent, followed by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, with 13 percent, and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), who received 12 percent, the National Journal said.