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The event has been criticized by some conservatives for being irrelevant, but the unanimous vote by the party's Central Committee to continue it is a sign that local Republicans still see the straw poll as an important early test for presidential candidates.

"The Central Committee recognizes the straw poll fundraiser is not only an important organizing event for Iowa Republicans, but also provides the only opportunity during the Iowa Caucus process where candidates can speak to tens of thousands of voters in a single event," Iowa Republican Party Chairman Jeff Kaufmann said in a statement.

The straw poll was first held in 1979 when it was won by George H.W. Bush and traditionally it takes place on the Iowa State University campus in Ames. The event is part carnival and part political conference -- where voters, journalists and political operatives are pursued by candidates. It is a major fundraising tool for the Iowa Republican Party. Candidates rent space -- often air-conditioned -- as they try to build support among those gathered who are often bussed in from other parts of Iowa as well as out of state.

The last straw poll in 2011 proved to be a false indicator, as Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann won, and Texas Rep. Ron Paul was close behind in second place. Neither candidate ended up in the top two places in the 2012 caucuses in which former Sen. Rick Santorum was the victor.

In 2007, Mitt Romney won the straw poll only to go on to lose to former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in that cycle's caucuses.

After the 2012 election Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad questioned the usefulness of the straw poll, saying he fears the straw poll is no longer representative and that its a turn off for candidates. In 2012 Romney skipped the event all together and went on to become the Republican presidential nominee.

Only one Republican non-incumbent has won the straw poll and gone on to occupy the Oval Office: George W. Bush in 2000.

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GOP tradition lives on: Ames Iowa Straw Poll planned for August

North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven slammed President Obama Saturday for threatening to veto a bill approving the construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline "even before he's seen the final product."

The House passed a bill green-lighting the long-stalled project Friday - the tenth time such a measure has passed the House in the last three years - and the newly Republican-led Senate is expected to take up the measure next week.

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House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the president should not veto a bill to fast-track construction of the Keystone XL pipeline if it passes...

The president, though, vowed this week to veto any attempts by Congress to force his hand on the pipeline, which has been delayed for six years pending the completion of an executive branch review process.

Hoeven, a Republican tasked with delivering the party's weekly address, argued Saturday that six years is quite long enough.

"If the president isn't willing to get on board with the Keystone XL pipeline - which nearly 70 percent of the American people support, all the states along the route have approved and a bipartisan majority of Congress has passed - what will it take for him to work with us to get something done?" he asked.

The pipeline, if built, would carry crude oil harvested from Canadian tar sands to refineries along the U.S. Gulf Coast. Proponents say it would increase energy security and create jobs, while foes argue those benefits are overstated and that the pipeline would exacerbate carbon pollution and climate change.

Hoeven hailed a decision by Nebraska's Supreme Court Friday overturning a lower court ruling that struck down a law proposing the pipeline's route through the state - a decision that effectively cleared that particular impediment to the pipeline's construction.

The administration had previously cited the ongoing legal wrangling in Nebraska in its decision to continue delaying the completion of its review process.

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Republican senator slams Obama's Keystone veto threat

Washington Former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told several donors Friday he's seriously considering a third run for the White House, a move that surprised his most loyal supporters and former staff after months of insisting his career in politics is over.

Romney, who ran unsuccessfully against President Barack Obama in 2012, attended a private gathering of donors at the New York offices of Woody Johnson, a leading Romney donor in 2012 and owner of the New York Jets football team, several people with direct knowledge of the meeting told The Associated Press.

All spoke under condition of anonymity, as they were not authorized to speak publicly about the private discussions. The meeting was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. A spokesman for Romney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The news about Romney comes as former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush marches swiftly toward a 2016 bid of his own, which threatens to win much of the support from the Republican establishment that fueled Romney's last campaign. Bush has spent recent weeks hosting private fundraising meetings across the country and is courting top talent to staff a potential campaign.

Should Romney follow through and enter the race, the former governor of Massachusetts who made millions in private equity would hardly be a lock to win his party's nomination for the second time. He would join a field expected to feature more than a dozen Republicans with legitimate White House resumes, sitting governors and U.S. senators among them.

"Mitt has been a terrific leader for the Republican Party, but if he runs again, he'll have to earn it again," said veteran Republican operative Phil Musser, a former Romney supporter. His firm is already handling preliminary campaign work for Jeb Bush. Jeb Bush, but says Musser has not committed to a candidate.

While the first primary contests in the 2016 race are roughly a year away, and no one has formally declared his or her candidacy, more than a dozen high-profile candidates are considering getting into the race.

In contrast to the Republicans, the Democrats have a clear early front-runner for the nomination in former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, even though she has not yet announced her intention to run.

One person at Friday's meeting, which included a conference call and was attended by roughly 15 of Romney's most generous and loyal past donors, said the gathering was meant to be an open-ended discussion among old friends. Several donors in the room had already privately committed to other 2016 contenders but wanted to hear from their one-time favorite.

Some were caught by surprise when Romney suggested he was considering a 2016 campaign after months of public denials. Others asked Romney what he would do differently after a 2012 campaign in which he struggled at times to connect with middle-class voters.

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Is Romney running again?

New Hanover County Board of Elections Chairman John Ferrante has had complaints filed against him this week.

The New Hanover County Republican Party affirmed Friday its confidence in county Board of Elections Chairman John Ferrante, against whom multiple complaints have been filed this week.

Republican Party Chairman Samuel Ibrahim writes that Ferrante is a fair chairman who treated everyone who came before him equally.

"Mr. Ferrante is a true professional who cared deeply about his responsibilities," Ibrahim writes. "Mr. Ferrante worked diligently with the rest of the Board members in a non-partisan way to ensure the integrity of every ballot."

Richard Poole, New Hanover County Democratic Party chairman, and Carolyn Bordeaux, a registered Republican, filed complaints against Ferrante this week with several allegations.

Both raised concerns about an alleged confrontation between Ferrante and commissioner candidate Derrick Hickey during the recount, as well as Ferrante's alleged direction to board of elections staff to not fulfill certain public records requests.

Also in Poole's filing are concerns about communication policies Poole said enhance Ferrante's personal control over the board staff and administrative protocols adopted last month that forbid board of elections employees to communicate with any board members other than the chairman "on any subject matter within the jurisdiction of the board."

Bordeaux's other allegations touch on Ferrante's treatment of her during a board meeting. She also questions his influence of board secretary Marlene Mitchell's votes.

Ferrante is the chairman of the Board of Trustees of Charter Day School Inc. and Mitchell is the wife of Baker Mitchell, who owns The Roger Bacon Academy, which serves as the management company for Charter Day School Inc.'s four local schools. Baker Mitchell also founded those schools.

The StarNews has been wrangling with Charter Day over public records since May 2014. The newspaper has repeatedly asked the school group for salaries and bonuses, as well as financial information related to the nonprofit school group's operations. Among the items requested are records of payments and contracts related to expenses on the group's budgets, including rent and debt, management fees, and contracted services payments to Roger Bacon Academy and Coastal Habitat Conservancy, a second company owned by Mitchell.

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Republican Party maintains confidence in Elections Chairman Ferrante

Republican presidential candidates have already been on the hunt for millionaire political patrons for months. But many are also making quieter, serious investments in pursuit of small online donorsa group that, for the first time, could play a major role in deciding the GOP's presidential primary.

With no clear Republican presidential front-runner, as well a bigger emphasis than ever on digital fundraising on the GOP side, candidates that can successfully harness that growing flow of dollars may end up better-placed to vault above the field. The new cash stream may enable some to survive without as many of the bundlers that traditionally power presidential campaigns, extend their efforts longer than in the past, and capitalize more effectively on the fleeting moments of stardom that strike in modern campaigns.

"This is going to be the first time in a Republican primary that there's been a significant role for grassroots giving," said Matt Lira, who was the deputy executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee in 2014.

Republicans, led by Mitt Romney, raised millions online in 2011 and 2012, but Romney's financial advantage was so big that those donors mattered less to the outcome. They could have a bigger effect on the bigger GOP field this time, just as online giving did in the Democratic presidential primary in 2007 and 2008.

The GOP has put a new emphasis on improving its digital game, especially its email fundraising, and more of the party's donors are giving online than ever before. Republicans have traditionally done a good job collecting small donations via direct mail, but email is many times cheaper. On top of that, an early start building an email list may be critical for whoever actually wins the nomination.

None of this is lost on high-profile GOP hopefuls including Sen. Rand Paul and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walkerwho are already laying the groundwork to cash in on the growing pool of digital donations.

"It's vital, if you're running to win the presidency and not just the nomination, it's vital that any of these campaigns build a big list as soon as possible," Lira said. "Hillary [Clinton]'s obviously got Ready for Hillary and it'll be too late to build a competitive list by the summer of 2016" to be able to match the small-dollar donations that Clinton would likely be able to pull in from the donor list the super PAC is gift-wrapping for her.

Multiple Republicans cautioned that big donors will likely still be the most important parts of campaigns' early fundraisingnot just because of their ability to finance super PACs but because that's traditionally the easiest source of early money. Effective digital fundraising requires large email lists and typically ramps up toward the end of campaigns. But there is money to mine online if the right foundations are laid, and some candidates have already started building them.

"The right candidate is going to be able to raise tens and tens of millions online in their primary, and I think there's multiple candidates who have that potential," said Vincent Harris, a GOP digital consultant who worked with presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2012 and is now working for Sen. Rand Paul. "That's a lot of money if you think it's going to cost $40 to $60 million to get through the beginning of the primary as some are speculating. So it's going to be a very important piece of this in terms of where campaigns are actually getting their resources from."

Another strategist working for a possible presidential contender put the estimate in terms of successful candidates' needs, not their capabilities. He said a viable campaign will need between $50 million and $75 million "by the time of the first couple of states"and that campaigns will need around 10 to 15 percent of that to come from digital, which works out to at least $7.5 million to $11 million online by around February 2016. Another person said the share could approach 20 percent.

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GOP 2016 Hopefuls Race to Cash In on Small Online Donors