At least 60,000 Republicans turned out at schools, churches and community centers across Colorado Tuesday night for precinct caucuses, party officials said, kicking off the election season with ground-level party business.

Attendance was up sharply from two years ago, when an estimated 25,000 Republicans showed up for the biennial neighborhood meetings, and roughly matched the GOP turnout in 2012, when former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum won a non-binding presidential straw poll at Colorado caucuses.

While Republicans didn’t conduct a statewide straw poll for presidential candidates at this year’s caucuses — the state GOP decided against doing that last fall, concerned that it would bind national convention delegates to candidates who might drop out, among other reasons — one county conducted an informal “just for fun” poll, and numerous precincts asked attendees to weigh in on their choices.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz led among presidential candidates in Adams County, and also led in a survey of precincts that reported their straw poll results on social media. In a poll for the U.S. Senate nomination, state Sen. Tim Neville, R-Littleton, won the county’s straw poll.

In Adams County, Cruz had a commanding lead with 39.36 percent of the vote, according to preliminary figures based on 50.2 percent of precincts reporting. Trailing Cruz was Florida Sen. Marco Rubio with 22.69 percent, followed by real estate mogul Donald Trump with 20.64 percent, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson with 13.85 percent and Ohio Gov. John Kasich with 3.46 percent. (Carson suspended his campaign the next day after a poor showing in the 11 Super Tuesday states that held official tallies the same night as Colorado’s caucuses.)

Adams County Republicans also polled caucus attendees on the crowded field of U.S. Senate hopefuls, and Neville triumphed in that straw poll, with 36.31 percent of the vote. He led El Paso County Commissioner Darryl Glenn’s 17.87 percent, former Aurora Councilman Ryan Frazier’s 11.53 percent, El Paso County Commissioner Peg Littleton’s 7.49 percent, former state Rep. Jon Keyser’s 6.92 percent, activist Charlie Ehler’s 5.76 percent, business consultant Robert Blaha’s 4.9 percent, activist Jerry Eller’s 3.17 percent, perennial candidate Tom Janich’s 2.88 percent and businessman Jerry Natividad’s 1.15 percent. Former CSU athletic director Jack Graham and Jefferson County Commissioner Don Rosier scored less than 1 percent apiece.

Neville is pursing the nomination via caucuses and the April 9 state assembly, where candidates need the support of 30 percent of delegates to make the June 28 primary ballot. Frazier, Keyser, Blaha, Natividad, Graham and Rosier have pulled petitions and are working to get at least 1,500 valid signatures from each of Colorado’s seven congressional districts in order to get on the ballot.

But mostly it was routine business on Tuesday night, as Republicans designated precinct leaders, picked delegates to advance to county, district and state assemblies and conventions, gathered names of potential election judges, passed the hat for contributions and sent proposed party platform planks up the ladder.

At Columbine High School in Littleton, where 23 precincts met for GOP caucuses, there wasn’t much grousing about the lack of a presidential straw poll — a couple of people in each precinct wondered why there wasn’t one but didn’t mind much, organizers said — but there was plenty of discussion about principles and issues, and the phrase “constitutional conservative” was on plenty of lips.

“I believe God is supreme. I’m very active in my local church,” science teacher Randy Montgomery said in brief remarks explaining why he wanted to be a delegate at higher assemblies. “I believe in defending the Constitution. I especially believe in my Second Amendment rights. I believe, thirdly, in preserving the lives of babies, that’s incredibly important for me. I believe, fourthly, in financial responsibility — don’t spend what you don’t own. And, fifthly, I believe in the traditional definition of marriage — marriage should be between one man and one woman. Those are the things I would stand for if I get to represent you.”

“Ditto,” said the others hoping to represent the precinct. “If you like what he said, you’ll like me too,” one added. (Montgomery was among the delegates selected from the precinct.)

Neville visited many of the caucuses at Columbine — his home turf — as business was winding down, his last stop on a tour across the southern metro area to speak at the meetings.

“We are committed to the caucus process. We’re not committed to going out and paying a bunch of petitioners to go out and get signatures and get on the ballot that way,” he told one precinct. “I would hope that you all have that opportunity to pick your next U.S. senator, and that’s the way it should be, it should come from the caucus level.”

Neville also gave a brief pitch, noting he’d unseated a Democratic incumbent in 2014, but many of the Republicans at Columbine were familiar with him, as he lives not far from the school and represents them in the Senate.

“I don’t put my trust in big government,” he said. “We need to get back to a constitutionally limited government that respects something called the 10th Amendment and the ability of the state to decide what it needs to do here.” He added, “I’m the one who has a legislative track record on the tough issues. I don’t just talk the talk, I walk the walk.”

In Neville’s home precinct, former state GOP chair Dick Wadhams — he’s managing Graham’s Senate campaign — observed that his precinct’s caucus, with about 20 Republicans in attendance, was a more sedate affair than it had been in previous years, including in the distant past when he’d held the caucus at his home.

“There was no discussion about the presidential race, nor of the Senate race for that matter,” he said. “I think taking away the presidential preference poll takes away some of the competition, and also, I think it affected attendance, too. In 2008, there were probably 100 people in this precinct, and in 2012 there were probably about 100 too.”

Wadhams said it’s time for the state to revive the presidential primary elections that Colorado conducted in 1992, 1996 and 2000.

“I think we should keep the caucuses, but I think every four years we should have a presidential primary. I know it costs money, but what’s more important than a presidential campaign? The caucuses should elect the people representing those campaigns, but the primary should determine who they should support.”

— ernest@coloradostatesman.com