Politics & Government

Romney Wins Relatively Uncontentious Caucuses in Brentwood and Maplewood

A political science professor and Patch blogger reports from the local meetings.

Mitt Romney was the clear winner in the two Republican caucuses that represent Brentwood and Maplewood, on Saturday.

Charles Hinderliter, a Maplewood resident and political science professor at Jefferson College, took part in the Hadley Township caucus, at the Masonry Institute, in Richmond Heights.

He said Hadley Township isn’t heavy in Republicans, so they were happy with a turnout of 74.

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The Clayton Township, which includes Brentwood, had 143. They met at the .

The Hadley group started with a straw poll to get a sense of where the room stood, then some jockeying for position among delegates took place.

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“There were tense moments,” he said, “but this is still among people that have known each other for decades.”

He said even when things got contentious everybody was respectful, which wasn’t the case at other caucuses around the state, obviously. In St. Charles, two were arrested, when the large crowd became unruly.

At the Hadley Township caucus, Romney won the straw poll, with 30 votes, Ron Paul was second with 19, Santorum took 14 and Gingrich got six. The delegates were distributed accordingly.

Romney took more than 50 percent of the vote at the Clayton Township Caucus, and won the entire slate of delegates.

Each caucus determined its own rules, Hinderliter said. The results of the whole state won’t be known officially until April 21 at the congressional district caucuses.

“Some people have been keeping track what’s going on with each of these of these individual caucuses, but there is no official reporting mechanism,” he said. “At least we’re  getting a sense of how some of these are playing out.”


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