Having the governor of the state say the straw poll is no longer useful could give many potential candidates an excuse to skip the rather expensive event. Candidates who may not naturally appeal to the heavily evangelical make up of the event will probably be glad to have another good justification for not wasting money on it.

The bad economy, Democrats’ terrible political handling of health care reform and an unusually high number of positions up for election allowed a wave of Republican governors to be swept into office across the country last year. Yet this wave of success, and the poor economy which enabled it, could become a real political headache for the GOP in 2012 as the try to take the White House.