Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton and Republican Congressman Ron Paul were the top choices of those who attended their respective party caucuses Tuesday at Litchfield High School. But bigger than who they chose was the number of people who did the choosing. Both Republican and DFL party leaders reported record turnout for the caucuses Tuesday.

At the DFL caucuses, where the steady stream of attendees forced party leaders to open a second classroom for precinct caucuses, Clinton garnered 137 votes, while Sen. Barack Obama received 109 votes. The totals were in opposition to statewide voting, where Obama was the winner. As such, he will receive the majority of Minnesota's 72 pledged delegates.

Meanwhile, a few hallways away from the DFL caucus, Republicans met in the LHS cafeteria and posted a somewhat surprising vote in a non-binding presidential preference poll. Paul, a Texas congressman, who has not received nearly as much publicity as other candidates, earned 46 of the 145 votes cast. Paul easily outdistanced former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (35 votes) and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (32 votes). Sen. John McCain, who was the big winner in Super Tuesday primaries and has a comfortable lead in the Republican presidential campaign, finished a distant forth in Litchfield with 26 votes.

Read more about Meeker County caucuses in Thursday's print edition of the Independent Review.