Iowa Caucus Madness

11:44 am EST November 18th, 2007 | News | 1 Comment

We have got to take away the power of this idiotic process to pick our leaders. No matter how the results may or may not support your candidate, the Iowa caucus process is insane.

Unlike the Republican caucuses in Iowa, which are fairly simple, akin to a straw poll, the Democratic caucuses are arcane, rule-bound Party meetings where members are not picking Presidential candidates but choosing delegates to their county conventions. Winning the most delegates for your favored candidate requires not only a sure grasp of mathematics but a keen understanding of group dynamics. In 2004, John Kerry’s precinct captains were generally professionals who knew how to use caucus arithmetic to get more delegates for their candidate, while Howard Dean’s captains were young and poorly trained newcomers who were outmaneuvered in caucus rooms across the state. Waliser is training her captains to be disciplined. Within each precinct, she counselled, an Obama team had to include people responsible for specific tasks, including a “host,” a “greeter,” a “checker,” and a “persuader.” And then there’s the “corraller.” At each caucus, any candidate who does not gain the support of a certain percentage of the attendees—typically, fifteen per cent—is considered nonviable, and supporters may disband and align with other candidates. “Realignment” is a chaotic moment when campaigns descend on each other’s groups and try to poach from them. The arguments used during realignment are notoriously haphazard, ranging from the high-minded (“Join my group because my candidate opposed the war”) to the pedestrian (“Join my group because I loaned you a snow shovel last week”). This, Waliser explained, is why every Obama group needed a corraller—to ward off the poachers. “This person will in a polite and respectful manner physically contain the Obama group and ask them to stay in their place,” she told her precinct captains. She suggested feeding them in case they got restless. “The name of the game on caucus night is stand and stay, so this is where the chocolate-chip cookies are crucial.”

Topic: 2008 Election

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One Response to “Iowa Caucus Madness”

brent says:

November 18, 2007 at 9:31 pm

This narrative bugs me so much. The process isn’t that complicated. Yes, it’s unnecessary now to send delegates to Des Moines to represent the districts. Yes, a straw poll is more direct. But words like “archaic” and “chaos” are so unnecessarily perjorative. A “sure grasp of mathematics” is required?! Egad! What kind of madness is this!?!

It’s not that complicated. Becuase of it’s population, a district can send a certain number of delegates to Des Moines, so it does a head count and rounds off the percentages so the proportion of delegates matches the proportion of heads.

Delegates are sometimes kids. It’s an honor. They go to Des Moines and meet state party bigwigs, shake hands, participate. The whole thing is very pleasant, fun, exciting, and inclusive.

I imagine the journalists who hate this have only ever seen big Des Moines ones, which I imagine can be pretty crowded. But in smaller districts, a few hundred Dems show up, drink cocoa, talk politics, mingle with others who support their candidates, and go home. The fact that the district party rep has to whip out a calculator for a minute is hardly a showstopper.