MANKATO, Minn. -
Republican candidate for Congress Sen. Mike Parry says, "You get to talk to them. They come together as one unit and come out of here unified and ready to tackle the, in this case, the Walz/Obama agenda that's been going on."
Sen. Parry is making the rounds today, gathering support for his run at the Republican nomination for Minnesota's 1st Congressional district.
But the big news out of tonight's events will be the results of the Presidential straw poll. The latest polling shows Rick Santorum with 33%, nine points ahead of his nearest rival. But in Mankato, it's the fourth place contender at 20% statewide who looks to dominate tonight's caucus at Mankato East High School.
Ron Paul surrogate Martin Langhorst says, "I've personally been in a lot of contact with the Ron Paul supporters from the Mankato area, lot of emails, place calls and coordinating."
The heart of that support is coming from younger voters, most of them with a more libertarian bent than has been the norm in the Republican Party.
Ron Paul supporter Dan Terrell says, "Obviously we don't want to spend as much money as the Democrats do, but when it comes to things like gay marriage or a lot of other issues, war and all that stuff - we're kind of sick of spending so much money on wars. And we don't think we should discriminate against people."
Still others, in that same age group, are doubtful, both of Paul's chances, and the politics of some of his supporters.
Mitt Romney supporter Wes Harvey says, "Out of all the candidates he does have the most loyal supporters, but I know there are a lot of DFLers down here in Mankato and they know Ron Paul doesn't have a chance."
Politics at its finest. Or worst. Depends how you look at it.
