Former Senator Rick Santorum soundly beat Mitt Romney in the Mesa County Republican caucuses on Tuesday night with roughly 50% of the overall vote. At last count around 10 p.m. Romney was in second place with around 30% of the vote. Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich, at last count, were a distant third and fourth place within a close margin of one another.
Western Colorado enjoyed a whirlwind of presidential primary activity when, on Saturday, February 4th, Rick Santorum visited Montrose County, and on Monday the 6th, Mitt Romney held a rally in Mesa County. Both events were packed with enthusiastic crowds who listened intently to the remarks of the respective candidates.
Rick Santorum appears to have had an edge with Western Colorado voters because of his familys' roots in the mining industry. Santorum's father was a coal miner in the hills of Pennsylvania, and that background rings true with many in Western Colorado who have familial and economic ties to the mining industry, and other facets of the energy sector.
Timing and demographics may also have helped Senator Santorum to secure a win in Mesa County. The national news this week has been headlined by the Obama Administration's assault on the rights of Churches. The mandate coming from the White House which forces religious organizations to provide contraception in medical insurance plans to employees has fired up social conservatives across the country. And Rick Santorum is the quintessential social conservative candidate of 2012. Santorum is Catholic, and many of the more moderate and socially liberal Republicans have been reluctant to back him. But he appears to be the conservative champion of the moment, having a long history of opposing policies which intrude upon religious liberty, and which weaken families.
Western Colorado historically is more conservative in character than the Front Range, so Rick Santorum's win over the more moderate Romney is not terribly surprising to those who live on the Western Slope. However, political pundits seem to be quite surprised, having claimed just days ago that Mitt Romney's win in Nevada signaled an inevitable Romney nomination.
The primaries and caucuses in Missouri, Minnesota, and Colorado are a game changer for Rick Santorum. Any way you look at it, the Republican primaries are wide open. Mesa County is full of free-thinking, independent, self-reliant voters who can be unpredictable at times. It appears that the entire primary process of 2012 has a lot in common with Mesa County.