Caucus Diary: Mitt Romney, Rand and Ron Paul, and Rick Santorum wrap up Iowa
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CLIVE, Iowa – Just two days into the new year, the Republican presidential contenders yesterday all but wrapped up their Iowa campaigns in advance of tonight’s caucuses.
Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, Rick Santorum, Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich, and Michele Bachmann pounded their target precincts in a final day of campaigning that stretched from the Mississippi River in the east to the Nebraska and South Dakota borders in the west.
The seventh candidate, Jon Huntsman, stayed away entirely, staking his candidacy on a strong showing next week in New Hampshire.
The three local contenders who polls branded the frontrunners – Romney, Paul, and Santorum – tried to stoke their base with now-familiar rhetoric.
Romney, capping a day that began in far eastern Davenport, rolled into the Des Moines suburb of Clive just before 9 p.m., inspired after a day of campaigning with his wife and four of their five sons.
He implored his supporters to rally to his cause tonight, saying they could be the first to ensure Democrat Barack Obama was a one-term president.
Evidence of the dissension he may face if he is the GOP nominee came in the former of Occupy Wall Street protestors who disrupted his speech.
Paul, meanwhile, tried to motivate the Tea Party members of his base by campaigning with one of their darlings: his son, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky.
The younger Paul cast his father as a true movement leader, sentiments that were cheered by college students and tourists bused into Iowa for pre-caucus events.
And Santorum stopped in Boone, the home of Iowa’s Republican governor, Terry Branstad, with a surrogate speaker sure to tug at the heartstrings of the social conservatives he hope will propel him to a strong third – if not better.
Jim Bob Duggar, the former Arkansas state representative who has gained national fame for fathering 19 children and being co-host of a TLC show, appeared at the Pizza Ranch restaurant with 12 of his children to announce that they were endorsing Santorum because of his pro-family platform.
The former Pennsylvania senator, joined by his wife and several of his own seven children, implored Iowans to take a risk, trust their instincts, and be not afraid to pick him over his rivals.
REPORTER’S DIARY:
Date: Monday, Jan. 2, 2012
Locations: Des Moines; Boone, Iowa; Clive, Iowa; Des Moines.
Mileage driven for day: 120 miles
Mileage driven for stay: 998 miles
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