Supporters of Republican presidential candidates Ron Paul and Mitt Romney combined forces to pitch a shutout at Rick Santorum in Saturday’s Jackson County GOP caucus. After four hours of sometimes grinding debate, roughly 1,000 caucus goers awarded Paul a majority of the county’s delegates to Republican congressional district conventions in April and the state convention in June. Romney got the rest.
The caucus-approved slate contained no delegates for Santorum or former House speaker Newt Gingrich.
And backers of the former senator from Pennsylvania — who won Missouri’s non-binding primary in February — didn’t like it.
“We were totally railroaded,” said Mary Jane VanBuskirk, a Santorum caucus voter. “And it’s not fair.”
Caucus goers in both the Paul and Romney camps said they began to discuss an alliance last week, after the Clay County caucus Mar. 17. In that meeting, Romney and Santorum backers joined together to reject a slate proposed by the Paul campaign, leaving the Texas congressman without delegates from that often contentious gathering.