I started thinking about this after reading some experiences in in
Fairfield, Des Moines, Waterloo & thought I'd share.
I'm 64 and attended the Iowa Caucus for the first time. Living in Iowa
City it's quite easy to WALK to events with various candidates. I
attended an event for Joe Biden basically so I could cross him off my
list....and was SO IMPRESSED! Experience, Integrity, Passion & Sense
of humor... I wanted to work for him so with just a few weeks left my
sister Norma & I went to the strategy meetings.... and discovered no
one else in our little area of Iowa City was working so we ended up as
precinct capitan.
At the last meeting realized one of us would have to stand up in front
of the auditorium and talk for 2 minutes!
We knew that there would be a big crowd..... perhaps even 400 people!
(Turned out there were actually 541... excluding those caught in the
traffic jam trying to park & NOT getting to the door before 7.
Our caucus place did something clever. As each person checked off on
the official roster roll or registered as a NEW Democratic voter they
were given a 3x5 card with a number on it with the instruction to give
it to the leader of the your preference group. That way as soon as
the last person was signed in, the total number of caucusing was
known. Multiplying that by .15 (thats 15%) would give the VIABILITY
number. My precinct had 541 people so 541 x .15 meant one needed 82
people to be Viable, and win 1 of our 8 votes. (Our precinct had 8
votes to be divided up by certain strict rules.)
Knowing what a bottleneck parking situation City High had with 4
different caucus groups and a ballgame at the same location, people
aligned with preference groups were warned to come really early.
There were folks there already at 5:30! The idea for preference
group leaders was to get acquainted with the others & see what sort of
horse trading could be done. As a Biden person, try to get the first
tier candidates to give us their excess votes to keep them out of the
hands of their closer competitors. Try to rally other "2nd tier"
people to unite under Biden. We were to keep OUR supporters together
and at the same time go around & try to get uncommitted folks.
Example: If Obama ended up with 2.6, Hilary 2.8 & Edwards 2.2 of our 8
votes first time around... Edwards .2 would be "excess" & not doing
him any good.... but if a second tier candidate could get viable it
would keep his closer opponents from getting their votes rounded up.
The auditorium was a zoo! People were sitting in rows, standing in
aisles, it was really hard to move around to GET to different groups.
I took a big Biden sign and decided to go help the confusion in
front. I figured just by helping direct people to the proper line,
get people out of the cold was the thing to do. I had printed out
copies of a Daily Kos bloggers LAST PLEA TO IOWAN caucusers but no one
really wanted to read anything.
At 7 pm sharp doors were closed and with 10 or so minutes more
everyone in line was done. Pref. captans were given a few minutes to
collect & count cards... (a much EASIER job than trying to count the
number of warm bodies as our brother in Des Moines can attest.)
Each preference captan was to give a 2 minute speech telling how many
people were standing with them, incouraging others to JOIN them.
SPEECH TIME For me the time of liquifying FEAR. For the 3 & half
days I KNEW about this speech I was mostly flat on my back with a flu
bug & nerves
I'm painfully timid when it comes to ASKING for something.
Thanks mostly to that Daily Kos Blogger I had a speech!
I got applause...
It's not experience Vs Change... It's ACTION! Biden's been an agent
for CHANGE for 35 years.
And I got laughs...
Democrats have lost 5 of the last 7 presidental elections even when
we've had better candidates.... due to the sleaze factor that comes
with Republicans, Rush Limbaugh & worse.
RELIEF - Speech over...
While the other more speeches where going on. I was thinking how to
get more individuals .... try Kucinich, + Dodd & overlap from Obama etc..
But when speeches were done & we had 20 minutes to realign.....
immediately people came up wanting their cards back from Biden.......
& they were going everywhere.... Richardson, Obama, Edwards, Hilary.
Although Dennis K asked his people to vote Obama they splinted
every which way as well.
At first count, Hilary needed 11 more people to even get 1 vote,
Obama needed 11 more people to get his 3rd vote. Edwards had 25 over
his first vote (or 1.3)
Because of so many great candidates, only 3 of the 8 slots were
secured with the first caucus vote. Second tier candidates together
accounted for more votes than either Edwards or Clinton. Knowing that
only the top 4 would speak in New Hampshire Neither Biden or
Richardson people would merge their votes to the other one.
In the end only the top 3 were viable and going by the formula (# of
people x 8 slots) / total number of caucus goers 541 our precinct
calculations when like this.
1st final slots rounded
Obama 235 283 4.184 4 trucate .184
Edwards 107 157 2.321 3 rounded up .679
Clinton 71 87 1.286 1 trucate .286
OTHERS 128 not viable 0
Actual voting as in NEW HAMPSHIRE would be more accurate and look like
the 1st numbers. Note on the original vote Edwards got about 1.5 of
Hilarys 107 to 71... But having .005 MORE on the final count allowed
Edwards a 3:1 advantage.... why that 2nd & 3rd place finish state wide
is somewhat suspect.
NOW here is the big difference between CAUCUSing and a straight 12
hour voting 1person = 1 vote. EACH AREA gets an apportional number of
votes. Money can't win it. A candidate can't just pour lots of money
into the 2 biggest population areas & win. One has to deal with the
intelligent, the rich, the plain folk, the cosmopolitan, the fiercely
independent, the quirky, the dumbdorks. That's what makes Iowa such a
challenge.
But Caucus really NARROWS THE FIELD. Still room for competition but
any one candidate has to take at least 15% of an area. Almost 1 in 4
wanted someone that wasn't viable in our precinct.
All in all I REALLY ENJOYED the time spent with the candidates & the
caucus & would highly recommend it to voters in whatever states are
lucky enough to be TEST states.
This caucus was different. Hopefully we will never again be SO
desperate for a good president that we need to start looking so early.
