Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum completed a surprising surge up the polls in the last week to become the preferred candidate to run for the White House among Lakeville's Republican caucus goers, as well as Minnesota's.

All of Lakeville's 14 precincts caucused at Lakeville North High School on Feb. 7, and Santorum won the straw poll, receiving 247 of the total 651 votes cast, good for 37 percent of the vote.

Ron Paul finished a surprising second with 178 ballots cast in his favor, or 27 percent of the votes. Mitt Romney, who decisively won Lakeville's straw poll in 2008, was third with just 158, or 24 percent of the vote. Newt Gingrich finished a distant fourth, with just 10 percent, or 68 total votes.

And at least in Lakeville, his rise was spurred by a robust turnout of first-time caucus goers, which some Senate District 36 party leaders estimated to have made up roughly 70 percent of the nearly 1,000 people who packed Lakeville North High School.

"He's a man of impeccable moral character," said Kelly Watters, 34, of Santorum. "I had to come and support him. I just felt compelled."

It was Watters' first caucus, she said. She also brought her two sons, aged 6 and 3, to the caucus because she couldn't find a baby sitter.

"It was a marvelous experience. I'm glad that my sons had a chance to see this, too," she said. "I thought this year, of all years, it was just too important not to be heard."

In a sign of things to come, Lakeville's State Sen. Dave Thompson (R-District 36), who began the caucus by leading the Pledge of Allegiance, earlier in the day had introduced Santorum at a campaign rally in Blaine.

"It was the opportunity of a life time," Thompson told Patch minutes before the caucuses began.

He said Santorum had asked him personally if he would endorse him.

"It was something I had been considering," Thompson said.

Party leaders say the turnout in Lakeville was smaller than in 2008, but that the arrival of so many new faces was encouraging.

"It's awesome. It's just really awesome," said Lakeville School Board Member Michelle Volk who is also very active with Senate District 36.

Meanwhile, in the state of Minnesota, as of midmorning Wednesday, Santorum had beat the other three hopefuls with 44.84 percent of Minnesota Republican caucus votes, with almost 94 percent of locations reporting. Santorum had earned 21,513 votes so far.

Ron Paul followed with 27.19 percent, Mitt Romney with 16.91 percent and Newt Gingrich with 10.77 percent.

Santorum’s win wasn’t just impressive for its margin, but for its ubiquity across the state. With counting complete in all but four counties, Ron Paul won just four, in scattered rural areas across the state, and tied with Santorum in Lincoln County, on the South Dakota border. Paul did better in major cities, nearly scraping out a win in Ramsey County, but even there, Santorum bested Paul. Romney was far back in the counting throughout the state; in McLeod, Sibley and Sherburne counties, for instance, his percentage of votes was in the single digits.

That's a stark change from 2008, when Romney carried Minnesota, and even Lakeville, by a sizable margin. In Senate District 36, Romney received 710 of the 1,369 total votes cast—good for 52 percent, which includes all of Lakeville and a few other precincts from neighboring communities. John McCain received 275, or 20 percent, with Mike Huckabee, 236 votes, and Ron Paul, 132, bring up the rear.

Lakeville Patch will have more caucus night coverage, including DFL caucus night news, as well as Republican platform information.