NEW YORK, NY November 07, 2007 —The New York City Young Republicans came together last night to debate which presidential candidate deserves the GOP nomination. In a straw poll, former mayor Rudy Giuliani was not the winner. WNYC’s Fred Mogul has more.

REPORTER: Whoever gets the most supporters to a straw poll wins. And that’s what backers of Texan physician-turned-congressman Ron Paul did at the Metro Republican Club on the Upper East Side. Avery Knapp, a young medical resident, spoke on behalf of the Paul campaign, the only one in the GOP that opposes the war in Iraq.

KNAPP: He stands for a traditional republican foreign policy of no nation building and stop policing the world.

REPORTER: For 2 hours, Knapp and 4 other twentysomethings laid out the candidates’ positions on taxes, abortion, gay marriage and at the very end, national security and the war in Iraq. About 90 people showed up and 60 or so voted. 44% backed Paul, 36% Giuliani, and 10% Romney, with the rest divided their votes among 5 other GOP candidates. In Iowa, New Hampshire and nation-wide, polls show support for Paul in the low-to-mid single digits.

For WNYC, I’m Fred Mogul.