colorado. with 46% of the vote and santorum in the lead. 901 votes ahead of mitt romney. 31% to 30%. and ron paul in fourth with 13%. a lot to talk about in the hour ahead. we'll check in with santorum headquarters and the other camps as well. we'll hear from the candidate, from rick santorum himself. we'll talk to our panel about how much this changes the landscape and how significant a win for santorum or a close finish to romney in second place would mean for the former senator. let's take a look right now at some of the highlights from the candidate speeches from earlier tonight. >> conservatism is alive and well in missouri and minnesota! your votes today were not just heard loud and wide across the state of missouri and minnesota, but they were heard loud and louder all across this country. and particularly in a place that i suspect maybe in massachusetts they were heard particularly loud tonight. >> this was a good night for rick santorum. i want to congratulate senator santorum. wish him the very best. we'll keep on campaigning down the road, but i expect to become the nominee with your help. >> there's maybe another person who's listening to your cheers here tonight also. that might be at 1600 pennsylvania avenue. you better start listening to the voice of the people. >> he said progress would be determined by again, quote, whether the average american family saw its income go up instead of down. during the last four years the median income has fallen by about 10%. again, by his own definition, president obama has failed. we will succeed. >> you know, the unemployment numbers went down last month. and you'd think that was good. until you learn that the number one reason the unemployment number went down is that 1,200,000 people dropped out of the work force. literal literal literally aren't looking for work. so under obama's model if we all stopped looking for work, we'd have no unemployment. he is the best food stamp president, you decide which future you want. >> one thing that i'm convinced of, those who joined the campaign for liberty and promote this cause really believe in something. i keep thinking it must be a lot more fun believing in something than just campaigning for nothing. >> governor romney's greatest at distribute is i have the best money and the best organization. we, he's not going to have that in the fall. >> president obama said he's learning. we say he's learning too little and too late. >> governor romney said the other day he wasn't really worried about the very poor because they have a safety net. i am not a safety net republican. i don't believe -- i believe the safety net turns into a spider's web which traps the poor at the bottom and keeps them dependent and teaches them not to go and have a better future. >> those are some of the speeches we heard earlier today. and dana joins us live from santorum headquarters in st. charles, missouri. what did the senator have to say, dana? >> >> reporter: well, he was extremely happy. he gave some of the highlights, but i think the biggest applause line when he said he was not running the alternative to mitt romney. he's running to be the conservative alternative to barack obama. so that is shanley the message he gave when i spoke to him moments ago. senator, first of all, congratulations. >> thank you. it was a good day. the people had an opportunity to go out there without a lot of the garbage being thrown at them. although i will say when i was in minneapolis today, somebody handed me three negative mailers from the romney campaign. >> what did they say? >> newt gingrich is a bad guy, newt gingrich is a good guy. i think that sums them up pretty cleanly. look, you know, to say that minnesota didn't matter, you don't spend money if it doesn't matter. in fact, they spent more than i did. we made three visits up to the state. three here to missouri. the response was great. and, you know, the visits helped. we had a great visit out in colorado. look at the places we were, month troes out on the western slope. someone said we got 61% of the vote out there which is pretty impressive for one stop. just wish we had more time to spread around in a few more places. i think the message is resonating. >> now, you have not spoken to newt gingrich or romney, but there's probably a couple of messages on your cell phone. >> yeah, i'm not going to answer my phone when i'm giving speeches. but look, they have been forthright and look, maybe there's other people in this race. i respect both of them as well as congressman paul. and i'm sure that they -- they left me nice voicemails. >> not to take away from the in -- away from the wins, they were big wins particularly in minnesota, but what do you say to the whole idea what's happening now is a split regionally, that you have won in the midwest and that, you know, newt gingrich is a southern candidate and so forth? >> here's what i would say to that. the first five states, everybody knew they'd be the first five states. they were the first five states last time that's where all the money was spent four years ago. that's where all the money was spent putting their campaigns together. usually this race is decided. now we're in a little bit of a no-man's-land. you've got campaigns that don't -- that haven't spent months and millions in these states. and it's a whole different environment. it's much more real as to what the real temperature of america is as opposed to some of these states that have gotten a whole lot of extra attention from these candidates. i would say i don't think it's regional at all. i think it's the first three states. look, we may win colorado or come very, very close. governor romney won that state with 61% of the vote last time. that's state that people would say, how can rick santorum do well in colorado? well, we did. that's not a region, but that's out west, the rocky mountain, very different from iowa. >> but that state like this state, they have large evangelical populations. do you feel that you have been able to prove -- i know you're saying you're the conservative alternative to barack obama. do you think you have been able to prove that you're more than just the candidate for the staunch conservatives? >> if you get 55% of the state of missouri you're getting a lot more people than just evangelicals. as you know, faith is very important to me. i try to be a faithful catholic, but i think our appeal is a lot broader and stronger than that. i feel very good that this message is going to carry over. we'll head off to oklahoma and texas. tomorrow we're headed up to michigan and ohio which are two states we have got our eyes on. we're headed to north dakota. we'll be in tennessee. we're going to be traveling all over the country. we're not putting -- in fact, we'll be in california and washington state. another couple of states, california for money raising, but washington that's a state we think we can do well in. >> so your path forward is -- across the entire country? >> look, if we're going to be the alternative to barack obama, we've got to show we can win in places around this country. and we're not going to leave any stone unturned. >> thank you, senator. congratulations again. >> thanks. >> now, i understand one of the more immediate stones he doesn't want to leave unturned are the ones with money underneath them. he'll head to texas tomorrow, and the campaign tells me it's to meet with some donors who want to give him some money and see him face to face. interestingly on that note, you may have noticed people who are kind of political junkies may have noticed a man by the name of foster freeze who was standing on the stage with santorum and his family. he's somebody who is a very wealthy donor, he's given lots and lots of money to the super pac that supports rick santorum. i spoke with him after the interview and i said, so, you know, are you getting ready to right more money to the super pac? he said maybe i won't have to. because of the fact that he thinks that perhaps the money is going to roll in from other places. >> dana bash, thank you, appreciate the reporting. we'll go live to romney headquarters in a few minutes. 20 minutes after he spoke to the crowd, he was shaking hands. a young man seemed to try to throw glitter at governor romney. security quickly grabbed him, led him out. governor romney now has secret service protection. that was the moment not only whisked the young man away, but moved governor romney out of the area. you see something being thrown toward governor romney there. jim acosta is going to join us shortly from romney headquarters. he's there now. jim, what's the -- what's the mood there? >> well, anderson, it was not a very good night for mitt romney, but it was a great night for the secret service protection. they jumped on the young man very quickly almost as soon as he tried to throw glitter on the massachusetts governor. the glitter is behind me on the floor. it was initially cordoned off, they were making sure this wasn't anything that meets the eye. they did do sort of an initial investigation. they made sure that this was essentially what we saw in that video just a few moments ago. this was a man who tried to throw glitter on mitt romney as he tried to exit the room after the victory speech. but to do a political postmortem tonight, i talked to stu stephens from the romney campaign. they said, you know, he indicated to me that this was not their favorite night in the race to the gop nomination. he did point out that rick santorum doesn't always have the most staying power. you recall he had the big night in iowa, and that did not last. after mitt romney had the tough loss to newt gingrich in south carolina, he won florida. so the romney camp still optimistic. they feel like they'll have the delegates to win the nomination. >> thanks, jim acosta. newt gingrich was not on the ballot, he didn't focus on colorado or minnesota. he's in ohio with an eye on super tuesday and joe johns joins us from columbus. >> anderson, newt gingrich might have been in an alternate universe tonight. he did post a telephone call we're told and didn't get him but tried to reach rick santorum. as you said, newt gingrich is not in colorado. he's not in minnesota. he's here in ohio. he's been here all -- basically all day long. he started out in cincinnati. went to dayton. ended up here in columbus, ohio. going out to cleveland in the morning. as far as newt gingrich is concerned, ohio is state that's getting ready for early voting even though ohio doesn't officially vote until super tuesday on march 6. he thinks it he's a good idea to spend some time team here and his whole strategy is to work through the southern states and on to texas hoping at the end of the day he's somewhere near parity with mitt romney. so that's the story on newt gingrich. back to you, anderson. >> joe johns, appreciate that. political earthquake you could say, rick santorum winning two contests. it would be an earthquake if colorado goes to santorum. we'll have an update on the numbers when we come back. all energy development comes with some risk, but proven technologies allow natural gas producers to supply affordable, cleaner energy, while protecting our environment. across america, these technologies protect air - by monitoring air quality and reducing emissions... ...protect water - through conservation and self-contained recycling systems... ... and protect land - by reducing our footprint and respecting wildlife. america's natural gas... domestic, abundant, clean energy to power our lives... that's smarter power today. ♪ ( whirring and crackling sounds ) man: assembly lines that fix themselves. the most innovative companies are doing things they never could before, by building on the cisco intelligent network. 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[ male announcer ] engine light on? come to meineke now for a free code scan read and you'll say...my money. my choice. my meineke. welcome back to cnn election center. we are watching a dramatic development unfold. as you know, rick santorum has already won the missouri primary. won the minnesota caucus, but look at what's happening in colorado. rick santorum continues to maintain a significant lead over mitt romney. 41% to 30%. newt gingrich in third place with 16%. ron paul, 13%. almost half, almost half of the vote in colorado is now in. this could be a political earthquake if in fact rick santorum not only wins in missouri and minnesota, but also wins in colorado. which mitt romney was assuming would go in his corner. anderson cooper is over in the cube with mark preston our political director, and you're all wondering, maybe mark can help us better appreciate when we might be able to project a winner in colorado. >> yeah, i think that's the question we'd like the answer to. >> let's do it now and go home. it's getting late. here's the situation. we haven't seen the big populous counties such as denver county and boulder county. these are counties that mitt romney tends to do very well in. but one county we are really keeping a sharp eye on is el paso county. this is where colorado springs is. it's dominated by social conservatives. now, if rick santorum does very well there and the turnout seems to be very high, this could be a dogfight going into the night. >> do you have any sense of how soon we might get the numbers? >> i think probably, you know n the next 15 or 20 minutes. we might see the urban numbers start to come in. so far what we have is a lot of the rural counties who don't have as many votes that have done the reporting. but wait until we see denver. wait till we see what happens in boulder county and in el paso county. the tiebreaker, get this, talking to the polling director keating holland could come down to this. it could come down to larimer counties. this is a dogfight. >> it would be a fascinating race starting tomorrow if rick santorum was able to pull out a win in colorado. wolf? >> thanks very much. john king is over with me at the magic wall. we've got almost half of the vote in, rick santorum is maintaining a significant lead. but we can't project a winner yet. >> we don't know the vote totals. turnout is very low. 47% of the precinct is in. looking at 3,400 votes, but to mark's point. what are we waiting for? this is adams county. come below it, denver county. see how many people turned onut the republican vote. go back four years ago, you had 4,000 votes or so. when you added it up in denver county. we're waiting for jefferson county and into the suburbs and the exurbs of denver tonight. we want to wait and see the maft come in. move up to the county, more rural, but the growth in the denver area has been great. and boulder county, 7% of the state population. decent republican turnout. again, mitt romney territory. 1,700 votes. so as you watch this play out as you come back to the map here and you pull it out, we see what else is missing. he mentioned colorado springs. grand junction was an area that romney carried before. denver county, again, largely a democratic area. a decent chunk of the population. i believe paul vercammen is standing by. we've been waiting to get more results. help us out. >> here's what i have told. romney won with 13-11. santorum was in second with 958. then paul with 621 and newt gingrich with 359. romney 1311 winning denver county. that's not reflected on the map behind me as you know. that's that squiggly little county. but as you pointed out they're waiting for the urban denver area counties to come in. that's the first. looks like romney got a win there. >> can i have the santorum win one more time? >> absolutely. 958. 1,311 to 958. >> so you're looking there, not quite 400 votes. so if you add roughly make up the math, i'm going to round it up, give it to 28 -- excuse my scribble, somewhere in the ballpark. governor romney is coming up. that's up. that's why it's so important, if he's making up somewhere in the ballpark of 300 or 400 votes here in this area, making up in denver county, then he would have to do something similar in jefferson county. he would have to do that in boulder county. if he can stretch the leads out in places like he won last time, that would help off set. storm he -- santorum, he's winning in the small counties. you come over to the county where he's winning, he's winning with 22 votes. even if this fills in purple down here, not a lot -- >> when we say 47% of the precincts have reported some of the precincts are really tiny. some might be bigger and as a result, this doesn't necessarily -- got up to 49%. we don't know if this is 50% of the complete turnout. it could be a lot less. >> because we're missing votes in here. we expect a higher turnout. if you go into the areas, i say higher turnout. i'm not going to say high turnout. i want to do back to arapahoe county, you don't get 200. you add that up, right? >> what was the turnout four years ago? >> that's depressing. >> 70,000. >> an exercise of democracy. it's depressing to see turnout down so much. i think there were weather issues there today. if you look at jefferson county, governor romney needs to make up the votes in a decent chunk. he got 65% of the votes four years ago. he needs to match that. because he went from 47 to 49. that was because larimer county came in. this is your further north here at the border up at the border, way out in denver area, down below here. 39% to 30%. again, 100% of the counties voting, 80% win. >> what was it four years ago? >> look at that. this turnout is stunningly lower than it was four years ago. beyond what happens in colorado tonight, if you look at the iowa experience and now the colorado and even the minnesota turnout is down there's a lot of conversations within the republican party and both parties about the caucus experiment and whether that needs to be revisited. >> let's update the numbers based on what we heard from paul vercammen. denver county, look at this. 49% of the vote now in, but i think we'll update it right now as i'm awaiting -- here it is 50% of the precincts now reporting. a lot closer 38% for rick santorum. 33%, now 50% of the precincts reporting. mitt romney is now ahead, 37% to rick santorum's 35%. 333 votes ahead, 7,494 to 7,161. this is a real horse race in colorado. 51 of the -- 51% of the precincts are in. mitt romney has take an slight lead over rick santorum right now. newt gingrich remains in third place. distant with only 14%. ron paul narrowly behind. but this is turning out to be quite a horse race in colorado. everyone assumed that mitt romney would win in colorado. that's why he was there tonight. that's why he was speaking from colorado. but it's certainly appears to be right now a whole lot closer than a lot of people thought. but mitt romney for the first time since these official numbers have been coming in. a slight lead. anderson, we could be here for a while waiting for the results from colorado to come in. where our edith and carolyn when we need them? >> i know. we should get them on the vote count. get lou rawls playing "after dark" again. and another surge for rick santorum. regardless of what happens in colorado. but is tonight a game changer? we'll talk to the panel when we continue. oh! [ baby crying ] ♪ what started as a whisper ♪ every day, millions of people choose to do the right thing. ♪ slowly turned to a scream ♪ there's an insurance company that does that, too. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? ♪ amen, omen our real battle is unfolding in colorado. take a closer look at what's go