Romney narrowly edges Santorum

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has won the Iowa caucuses by eight votes over Rick Santorum, according to data released by the Republican Party of Iowa. Romney received 30,015 votes to Santorum?s 30,007, each candidate earning about 25 percent of the vote. The Associated Press reported that more than 122,000 ballots were cast in the 1,774 precincts, a record for the GOP caucuses.

Ron Paul placed third in Iowa with 26,219 votes (21 percent). Newt Gingrich received 16,251 votes (13 percent). Rick Perry received 12,604 votes (10 percent). Michele Bachmann received 6,073 votes (5 percent). Jon Huntsman received 745 votes (1 percent). Herman Cain received 58 votes and Buddy Roemer received 31 votes. One hundred and thirty-five people wrote ?no preference? on their ballot and 117 people voted for someone else.

Paul won Washington County with 277 votes, 29 percent of the total. Santorum finished second with 205 votes (21 percent) and Mitt Romney came in third with 168 votes (18 percent). Gingrich garnered 128 votes, or 13 percent.

Romney won the city of Washington by as many votes as he won the state, eight. He captured 75 of the 303 votes cast (25 percent) in the city?s four precincts. Santorum received 67 votes (22 percent) and Paul was nipping at his heels with 66 votes (22 percent). Perry received 55 votes (18 percent), Gingrich received 31 votes (10 percent) and Bachmann received nine votes (3 percent).

Dolores Wood belongs to the Washington County Republican Women and caucused in Washington?s Ward 3. She said she had gotten a number of robo-calls from the candidates. She said she would caucus for Romney.

?You have to choose somebody, and you may not agree with everything they say,? Wood said. ?You have to find the one you agree with the most. I agree with a lot of what Paul says but I don?t think he can win.?

Julie Beenblossom of Ward 3 said she was voting for Romney. She and her husband, Bill, caucused for Romney the first time he ran for president in 2008.

?I was impressed with his organization when we went to the straw poll four years ago,? she said. ?He looks presidential and he acts presidential.?

Kurt Hanson of Ward 3 said he would vote for Paul because Paul is a ?champion of liberty.?

?He takes his oath of office seriously,? Hanson said. ?He has the nickname of ?Dr. No? because he has never voted for a tax increase or an increase in government.?

Theodore Kraft of Ward 1 was born and raised in Burlington but moved to New Jersey when he was 18. Before moving back to Iowa in 2005, he was not aware of how a caucus worked since New Jersey selects its delegates through primaries.

?I like the way the caucuses work,? he said. ?It gives people the opportunity to share their thoughts and ideas and perhaps sway someone one way or the other.?

Kraft said he had pretty much made up his mind to support Santorum, a decision he came to over the prior few days.

?I like that he is charismatic and he is good as a debater,? Kraft said. ?He is a social and a fiscal conservative. By and large, he meets the criteria I like for a candidate. I know nobody?s perfect, but he does not appear to have the baggage the other candidates have.?

During the part of the caucus dedicated to adding planks to the platform, Hanson proposed eliminating the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). A voice vote was held on whether to adopt the plank. Precinct chairman Steve Olson determined that there were more nays than ayes, which meant the plank was not adopted.

No one in Ward 1 spoke on behalf of any candidate prior to the voting, which consisted of passing out blank slips of paper on which the voters wrote the name of their preferred candidate. Arnold Smith of Ward 1 told the crowd of nearly 80 people that once the nomination process is through, Republicans should unite to defeat President Barack Obama in the general election.

Sam Fields, 11, attended the caucus in Ward 2 as an observer. He was there to earn a citizenship merit badge in order to become an Eagle Scout. Fields is the son of Kathy and Jess Fields.

Robert LaMay of Ward 3 caucused for Paul. He said he supported Paul because Paul is in favor of a gold standard and for limiting government.