Johnston Caucuses Get Under Way

Walking into Summit Middle School in Johnston, Iowa Caucus participants were greeted by candidate Rick Santorum. About 500 people were packed into the cafeteria at 6:45 p.m. Tuesday, with the Caucus set to start at 7 p.m.

Santorum, who is riding a surge in Iowa support, shook hands with folks as they came in the door and asked for their vote

Andrea Pighe, 22, of Johnston brought her 3-year old daughter, Savannah, and she was attending her first caucus. Pighe said she would caucus for Santorum tonight.

Savannah was passing out Santorum fliers, dressed for her important job in a pink dress with black tights.

“It’s my first time caucusing, I’m really excited,” Pighe said.

She chose Santorum because she is a fervent pro-life supporter and he believes in that.

In all,  Johnston was scheduled to host four caucus sites. Polk County was hosting 183 caucus sites.

The caucuses began at 7 p.m. For some areas, results will be known in a matter of 30 minutes or so. Larger caucuses could take a couple of hours. That depends on how many candidate representatives speak, how long they drag on and how many votes need to be counted.

The GOP record for caucus-goers is 118,411, set in 2008, when Mike Huckabee won, followed by Mitt Romney, Fred D. Thompson, John McCain, Ron Paul and Rudy Giuliani.

Patch will provide live coverage of the results as they come in.