Santorum Takes St. Louis Park

Rick Santorum has unofficially won the St. Louis Park caucuses, taking three out of four wards in the city.

Statewide, Santorum was the unofficial winner with 45 percent of the vote to Ron Paul's 27 percent. Mitt Romney garnered 17 percent, while Newt Gingrich had 11 percent.

Here are the unofficial St. Louis Park vote tallies, which mirrored the statewide results:

Santorum also , which is in the same Senate District 44 as St. Louis Park. Locally, Santorum took Wards 1, 2 and 3. Ward 4, which consists of the northwest portion of the city, went to Paul by a 31-23 margin over Santorum.

Mike Held, the GOP coordinator for Senate District 44, said he was pleased with the turnout in St. Louis Park. He added that he thinks Santorum would be a good challenger to president Barack Obama.

Several caucus-goers said they just want to see anyone but Barack Obama elected, citing a growing national debt and the president's health care reform as major concerns.

"There is a movement in this party, and it's only getting stronger," St. Louis Park delegate Justin Campbell said.

Held, who has been caucusing in St. Louis Park since 1974, said he always likes to see the party base come together.

"This is where it starts," he said from , where the four precincts of Ward 3 gathered.

While not voting on presidential candidates, precinct members discussed pressing issues, including the proposed , which gained plenty of support from those gathered in one precinct meeting room. Down the hall, another precinct debated whether language regarding pulling back troops should be pushed toward the state party platform.

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