Keyes Wins Alabama GOP Straw Poll : Campaign: Talk show host and Sen. Hatch, who came in second, are the only two well-known candidates who attended nonbinding vote.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The few who came prospered, in Alabama’s first ever Republican straw poll.

Talk show host Alan Keyes won the nonbinding ballot with 500 votes. Sen. Orrin G. Hatch of Utah finished second with 458 votes, while Texas Gov. George W. Bush, front-runner in the national race for the presidential nomination, was third with 421 votes. Keyes, Hatch and Florida education advocate Angel Rocker were the only candidates who attended.

“The only people showing up are the candidates with no chance of being elected,” said Merle Black, a political scientist at Emory University in Atlanta. “That diminishes the straw poll.”

Conservative Gary Bauer drew 124 votes; former U.S. Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Hanford Dole, 71; multimillionaire publisher Steve Forbes, 43; conservative commentator Patrick J. Buchanan, 42; former Vice President Dan Quayle, 22; and Sen. John McCain of Arizona, 21. Rocker came in last with six votes.

Keyes’ victory came after a stirring speech in which he encouraged delegates to vote their true feelings and not go with Bush just because he’s popular.

“If you keep voting for people who are vague on the issues important to this country, you will be defeated and you deserve to be defeated,” he said.

Keyes’ supporters were jubilant. “This is the greatest day of my life,” said his Alabama campaign coordinator, Stephen Engel.

Lt. Gov. Steve Windom, one of Bush’s Alabama chairmen, played down the outcome, saying, “I don’t think it has any significance outside this room.”

Hatch, who had said he would be happy merely to “exceed people’s expectations,” called the results encouraging. He said he decided to come to Alabama because other “name-brand” candidates stayed away and because “it was the right thing to do.”

“It was a bit of a difficult decision because today is my 42nd wedding anniversary,” Hatch said. His wife, Elaine, did not attend the event.

Even he said that Bush may be unbeatable. “George Bush has it wrapped up because the party hierarchy is with him,” Hatch said.

State Party Chairman Winton Blount warned that candidates were risking “snubbing a significant group of Republican votes” by not participating.

Blount said the event helped galvanize voters at the local level.

Carl Grafton, a political scientist at Auburn University at Montgomery, said Bush’s absence would not hurt the Texas governor.

“After eight years of Bill Clinton, these people want to win the presidency,” Grafton said. “Just because Bush doesn’t show up, they are not going to punish him.”

The pay-to-vote contest followed Saturday morning frivolities, including elephant rides and a dunking booth with a Bill Clinton look-a-like.

Unlike the Iowa straw poll, which Bush won two weeks ago, the Alabama event did not allow candidates to pay for unlimited delegates. They could sign up 100 delegates each for the $35 seats, but most didn’t. That caused many to discount the poll’s importance.