MANCHESTER, N.H. – A Rick Santorum event for volunteers and known supporters at a bar and grill got out of hand quickly Monday night in Manchester.
The meet and greet at Jillian’s Billiards Club had not been advertised to the public or press, but word had clearly gotten out. After the event reached the building’s maximum capacity of 450 people, the campaign had to ask many uninvited attendees to leave to make way for local supporters.
Police also refused to let in anyone in with a camera except photographers and videographers from major press outlets – even they were initially were denied entry. So strict was the no-camera rule that local Santorum supporters complained that they were forced to walk back to their car with their cameras and wait in line all over again to get in.
By the event’s scheduled 7:15pm start time, police were blocking front and side entrances and refusing to let in anyone else in the building, especially members of the press.
When Santorum and his family arrived at approximately 7:35pm, occupy protesters surrounded him with signs and chanted, “bigot, bigot, bigot.” Santorum did not engage with the protesters but immediately entered the building, where he shook hands with those gathered in the club’s front room for about 10 minutes before entering a closed-door, backroom meeting with volunteers.
At 8:05, Santorum reentered the main room and took the stage to make remarks.
“This is your moment,” Santorum told the crowd. “If Barack Obama is reelected, America as we know it will be gone.”
Santorum said if attendees really believed in their state motto – Live Free or Die – they would vote for someone in Tuesday’s primary who would “shake up” the presidential race.
“This President does not believe that,” Santorum said of the state’s motto. “This President does not believe it, and the establishment Republicans – they don’t believe much of it either.”
Santorum spoke for only five minutes in the main room, and then hurried off the stage.
The former Pennsylvania Senator’s events in New Hampshire and South Carolina have been jam-packed with press and political tourists since his surprise second-place finish in the Iowa caucus last Tuesday. But polls suggest that this momentum has not yet translated into increased support among people who can vote in the New Hampshire primary. Santorum canceled an event in the Granite State yesterday to spend more time campaigning in South Carolina, where polls show him within reasonable striking distance of Mitt Romney.
According to an American Research Group poll released today, Santorum is currently in fourth place in New Hampshire, trailing frontrunner Mitt Romney, as well as Ron Paul and Jon Huntsman, who are statistically tied for second place.
