WATERLOO, Iowa — Right off the highway in the tiny town of Waterloo, Iowa, a flashy neon sign welcomes passersby to the Electric Park Ballroom — a cream-colored building with flamingo-pink awnings that looks more like a bowling alley than a ballroom — for weddings, parties and on this night, the “Annual Republican Dinner.”
The dinner typically attracts fewer than 100 people but this year, there will be at least that many national reporters coming to the event. Nearly 300 people have bought tickets to the sold-out dinner and dozens more are expected to show up for a $20 ticket just to get in the door.
In two hours, Texas Gov. Rick Perry is scheduled to take the stage inside the “ballroom” for his first visit to Iowa as a Republican presidential candidate. Thirty minutes later, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, a Waterloo native, will take the stage.
The dinner will mark the first personal interaction between Bachmann and Perry, less than 36 hours since Bachmann won the Ames straw poll, Perry entered the race and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty dropped out.
Not to be left out, former Pennsylvania Sen. RIck Santorum will also be attending the dinner. Santorum didn’t bother to tell that, however, to the dinner’s sponsor — the Black Hawk County Republican Party.
“He told ABC [on Sunday] he was coming to the dinner, so we gave [Santorum’s] guys a call,” said Judd Saul, a spokesman for the Black Hawk County Republican Party. “We’re not going to give him as much time to speak as Perry and Bachmann.”
Santorum is scheduled to speak for about 10 minutes starting at 6:50 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Perry will follow at 7 p.m. and Bachmann will take the stage around 7:30 p.m., Saul said.
