SEASIDE Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was the big winner Sunday morning, with a sizable victory over his three political challengers in the Dorchester Conferences straw poll.

Amid an estimated 400 conservatives at the Seaside Convention Center, Romney easily bested Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul, winning 52 percent of the overall vote. His closest challenger was Santorum, who managed to garner 26 percent.

Gingrich received 14 percent, while Paul received 6 percent. President Barack Obama received 1 percent of the vote, which received a smattering of disbelieving chatter.

The three-day conference, which attracts statewide Republican leaders and party faithfuls, was focused on more than simply the straw poll.

But with Oregons presidential primary looming in May, followed by the November general election, discussions swirled around how to make the Republican Party stronger, both in the state and around the country.

Romney had been mentioned as a potential conference attendee, but neither he nor any of the other Republican candidates could attend the three-day annual event. Romney was in Washington Saturday for that states Republican caucus, where he won the straw poll.

Lois OBrien state president of the Eagle Forum, a conservative interest group founded by political activist Phyllis Schafly said she backed Santorum because he represented a true conservative voice, underscored by his profound belief in family values.

Calling Obama a Muslim a view that was quickly shot down by another Santorum supporter sitting at the same table OBrien said the Republican Party needed a Judeo-Christian candidate to topple the Democratic incumbent.

She voted for Santorum because hes the one who believes in the U.S. Constitution the most.

Those views were in the minority, however.

In a national election, its about electability, said attendee Jim Parker, who voted for Romney in the straw poll.

He said he believed the party would do best with a middle-of-the-road candidate like Romney. He added that many Dorchester attendees would like a stronger conservative candidate.

There are those who believe we dont need to compromise our values to win, he said.

Topics for discussion at this years conference, on which attendees eventually voted, were whether the federal government should decrease military spending, which failed in a 2-1 vote, or whether the state should reform its tax kicker system and create a rainy day fund, which failed by a similar margin.

The latter was voted down despite many attendees support of capping state spending and creating a special surplus fund because they disagreed with the wording of the resolution and believed it wouldnt accomplish its goals.

Grace Ishida, president of Dorchester, called the discussions the real highlight of the conference. The debates, sometimes lively, have been a constant over the course of the conferences 48-year history.

We try to pick topics for debate that arent going to be one-sided, she said, because how much fun is that?

Former Republican Sen. Bob Packwood began the conference in 1965 while serving in the Oregon Legislature. The purpose of the conference from day one was to give Oregons moderate Republicans a place to discuss a broad range of state and federal issues.

For nearly five decades, the conference has grown in stature and has hosted a slew of top-name speakers, including George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan and even George Romney, Mitts father, when he ran for president in 1968.

Illinois Rep. Aaron Schock, who at 30 is the youngest member of Congress, was this years keynote speaker.

More than simply the youngest member of the U.S. House, Schock is also an emerging sex symbol thanks to his shirtless appearance on the cover of Mens Health. He said the partys past should act as a guidepost to its future in a speech that referenced Republicans Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan.

History from the ancient times to the present has shown that every serious attempt at income redistribution ultimately leads to income loss, he said. Socialism has never worked throughout history in any society. Contrast that with our principals as the Republican Party that throughout the ages has proven we lift up humankind to boundless prosperity.

Greg Walden, who called Schock the future of the Republican Party, stirred up Dorchester attendees with a rallying cry to remove Obama, who he criticized for stalling Congress and taking 60 days to make a decision on the Keystone Pipeline.

He also vowed to offset the tax ceiling with spending cuts, saying the Republican Congress is putting America on a path so it doesnt bankrupt America for the next generation.

We are going to take him out as president of the United States, said Walden, Oregons sole Republican member of Congress. Though many of the conferences attendees had been to Dorchester before, it was the first time for a few.

Ian Spencer attended the conference for the first time and had mixed feelings. An Oregon native, Spencer is a principal at a Washington, D.C., digital advocacy firm that serves a number of conservative clients.

Spencer was in Oregon visiting a client and decided to drop by Dorchester with colleagues. He said it was refreshing to attend a political conference that was more laid back than he was used to in D.C.

In D.C., theres a lot of cynicism in politics, he said. There were a lot of people at Dorchester who were there to do good things. … They were there to talk about issues and not puff out their chests.

The themes of the conference didnt necessarily resonate with him, however. He stopped attending after the first day.

The best thing we did this weekend was go to a bar that sold two Jell-O shots for a dollar, Spencer said, chuckling. It was fantastic.

Politically incorrect Tent Show doesnt disappoint

Forget straw polls and wonky policy discussions. Dorchesters Tent Show a revue-style comedy-and-music exhibition received the conferences loudest response.

Kicking things off was former state Rep. Scott Bruun, channeling his inner guitar god with a blazing solo before launching into an electric guitar version of the Star Spangled Banner a la Jimi Hendrixs performance at Woodstock.

The performance led a few audience members to hoist mock lighters into the air.

Oregon House Co-Speaker Bruce Hanna was christened the most interesting man in the world in a series of videotaped sketches mimicking Dos Equis beer commercials.

Meanwhile, living up to its designation as politically incorrect, many of the jokes took personal aim at prominent Democrats. Portland Mayor Sam Adams, who is openly gay, was portrayed as the queen of Portlandia by a tiara-wearing actor, while making a pitch for a tax-funded sustainability center.

Occupy Seaside was ridiculed for being full of hippies, while U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici was said to have man hands. And former Rep. David Wu was portrayed dressed in a disheveled Chuck-E-Cheese costume, waving at cars from the side of the road.

There were also digs at Mitt Romney and other prominent GOPers, primarily in a parody video of reality show The Bachelor. Romney was portrayed as a contestant on the dating show trying to find a running mate with whom he could spend the rest of his political life. He was wooed by the likes of Donald Trump, Michelle Bachman and Dick Cheney, who said he wasnt interested in being vice president again for the power but rather to receive really good health insurance.

The Tent Show received big laughs from audience members who had spent the entire day mired in discussions of kicker tax reform and military spending.