Politics & Government

Santorum's Wildwood Campaign: "Issues and Freedom At Stake"

Missouri Republican Party caucus attendees gathered in Wildwood Saturday morning saw a relaxed, green-go oriented U.S. presidential candidate Rick Santorum. Not all caucus attendees were pleased about a rule of no stickers, decals or signage, however.

was one of several Missouri campaign stops Saturday morning for Republican U.S. presidential candidate Rick Santorum. "Let me assure you that Missouri's support and results in the primary last month mattered. We have the momentum, energy and grass roots efforts," he told attendees, who gathered at the .

"We don't have the money, we have you. But I'll take you over money any day."

Santorum won Missouri's nonbinding primary last month, and was the only one of four Republican presidential candidates who visited caucus locations in the St. Louis area Saturday. The state has 52 presidential delegates up for grabs.

Find out what's happening in Eureka-Wildwoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"How often in one's history do you personally get a presidential candidate at your caucus?" said Wildwood Mayor Tim Woerther. "This is a great compliment. It also shows the heightened importance of this election cycle."

Mike Panneri, Schnucks director of security, said he believed it was the first time a presidential candidate had ever visited one of their stores.

Find out what's happening in Eureka-Wildwoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Santorum thanked attendees for taking time out of their Saturday morning St. Patrick's Day festivities to attend the caucus. "It's not the sexiest thing to do to attend a caucus, but it's really vital. We need to elect a good slate," he said.

He emphasized that Republican supporters locally and in Missouri were "speaking loudly about conservative matters."

"We're making this presidential race about the issues rather than knocking down other candidates," said Santorum.

He said the race and the future of the United States has to be about freedom in government. "Will our future government and policies be limited? Or driven from the bottom up? Under Obamacare, we're destined for the same government."

Santorum told attendees he believed "we can change the world" because he believes in them.

As reported by The Associated Press, no winner will result from the nearly 140 local caucus meetings Saturday. State party rules do not require local delegates be bound to any candidate, and no straw poll was conducted. Saturday's meetings will elect 2,123 people to advance to congressional district conventions on April 21 and a state convention on June 2, according to the article. At those meetings, most of Missouri's 52 delegates are expected to be bound to presidential candidates.

"I liked that he (Santorum) talked about issues and not negativity, especially about other candidates. This was really good," said Ballwin resident Dale Redhage, who brought his two sons, Carson, 3 years old, and Marshall, 1 year old.

The Wild Horse Township covers portions of Wildwood, Ellisville, Ballwin, Winchester and Manchester .

Not All Attendees Were Happy

Prior to Santorum's arrival, attendees were told to remove any candidate-related stickers, decals, buttons and signage, per stipulated rules for the day. A Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney supporter from Wildwood, Rebecca Mathre, took issue with that notion. "Please show me these rules," she asked Woerther and former mayor of Ballwin, Walt Young.

"This meeting should be an even playing field," Mathre said, while standing up in the crowd. She said there were about 40 Romney supporters in attendance.

Woerther and Young reiterated the rules about no presidential candidate preferences had been shared prior to the caucus meeting.

After Santorum's visit, Mathre told Patch she thought their First Amendment rights had been violated. "Not allowing everyone to show and voice their opinions defeats the purpose of a caucus."

She said Saturday was the first time that many Republican Party members were getting to meet each other, and that displaying identifying marks was important to St. Louis district leaders.


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