By Barclay Kruse, NSC Chief Communications Officer
It's party caucus day in Minnesota, and presidential candidate Rick Santorum made a brief campaign stop in front of about 200 supporters at the NSC's Schwan Center today.
The NSC has been a frequent stop for political candidates over the years. Among others, we've hosted President George W. Bush, candidates John McCain, Tim Pawlenty, Elwyn Tinklenberg, and Jesse Ventura. Besides great facilities and a professional staff to help set up the event, we have one thing that candidates love -- free parking!
These campaign events are often organized on short notice. We only learned about this yesterday afternoon, and that's not unusual in this business. Jeff Kapeller, the NSC's Host Services Account Manager, and the entire NSC operations staff did a great job getting everything organized on short notice.
From the NSC's perspective, hosting a political event is great publicity for us. There is usually lots of media coverage, and sometimes even national coverage (as there was today.) And the reporters who cover political campaigns come from a different part of the newsroom than the sports reporters who usually cover our events.
So when it comes to welcoming candidates, we are decidedly nonpartisan. Se try to treat all candidates, their staffs and their supporters the same -- well!
Here are some photos of Rick Santorum's visit this afternoon.
Below, news cameras line up to shoot Santorum's entrance:
Television cameras along the back wall of the Grand Hall. They'll shoot the entire event, and then use ten seconds of video on the news tonight!
And there's the candidate in person:
And after a short speech, it was time for Santorum to meet his supporters:
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