First-time caucuser welcomed to <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Iowa politics

By Genie Gratto

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Genie was a new caucuser in IC 18. I welcome any other caucus submissions. In re. Hil not being viable, I wonder how that went in other precincts, and what it might mean for NH and beyond…

 

The snow on the ground matched the picture I carried in my head when I moved to Iowa in 2005: Tromp through inclement weather. Gather with a few hundred of your neighborhood friends. Tell the rest of the country what’s up with the whole presidential thing. 

 

I got in line Thursday around 6:40 p.m., shuffled into Longfellow Elementary with the rest of my 18^th Precinct neighbors, and signed in as an uncommitted Democrat. Then I joined the more than 700 adult caucusers in a gym built for a couple hundred elementary-aged kids.

 

“I don’t care who the nominee is, as long as it’s someone from this party,” remarked a man behind me. To my left, a couple entertained their baby.

 

Although every caucuser received a pink ticket on the way in the door, ostensibly to assist with the count, temporary precinct chair Dave Leshtz tried to organize the crowd to count themselves. Section by section, people raised arms, then dropped them as they called out a number. The uncounted crowd rumbled. There had to be a better way, right?

 

Sure enough, moments later, a caucus volunteer ran through the door to announced 720 distributed pink tickets. The hands-in-air count ceased. Caucus mathematics parsed that out to 108 caucusers needed for a candidate to be viable.

 

Let the caucus games begin

I spent the caucus season planning my attack, and decided that, when presented with the eight options (from Obama to Gravel), my best bet was to stay undecided. However, I planned to start in the Kucinich camp – I admit a fondness for the quixotic plan to establish a Department of Peace, as well as for sticking my thumb in the eye of the establishment.

 

Round One began. The Obama, Edwards and Clinton caucusers stayed in the gym, but the lower tier supporters and those who remained Uncommitted headed to classrooms. “If you’re supporting Gravel, see me,” Leshtz said, and the lone Gravel supporter, apparently, did do just that.

 

 

We took an early count in the Kucinich room and had 68 at hand. The fact that we were 50 short of viability but within an adjoining door’s reach of the Uncommitted proved too tempting. Within minutes, the Kucinich faithful had handed out talking points and dispatched emissaries to convince the Uncommitteds to join up.

 

“I’m only Uncommitted because I haven’t decided between the top three candidates,” growled a gray-haired woman at the front table of the Uncommitted room. “I want them to come and talk to us. Not you guys.”

 

It took a few more rebuffs before the Kucinich group reformed in their own room, now joined by a Richardson emissary. After the unsuccessful effort to lure Uncommitteds into the room, the Kucinich camp was down to approximately 50 and the Richardson camp claimed to have nearly 70.

 

Final count at the end of Round One: Richardson, Dodd, Biden and Kucinich supporters had firmly avoided viability. The Uncommitted camp still held 35 caucusers. Obama was running away with the night at 302, and the Edwards camp had 159.

 

The biggest surprise to me was that Clinton was not yet viable, with only 80 caucusers at hand. Hillary was in trouble.

 

 

The splintering sound of Round Two

After Leshtz announced the official Round One numbers, the non-viables returned to their rooms and the school filled with the frenetic energy of last call at Iowa City’s downtown bars. Get your orders in now, folks, or don’t get counted.

 

The Richardson and Kucinich camps negotiated heavily the idea of joining as Uncommitted caucusers. If they could recruit enough people—130 by caucus math—they could even send two delegates to the Johnson County Democratic Convention on March 15. One delegate, claimed this plan’s supporters, would vote for Richardson, the other for Kucinich.

 

. “Maybe I’m missing something, but if we’re Uncommitted, how do we verify that our wishes are even carried out after tonight?” I asked. “How do we know our vote will be counted?”

 

A second-time caucuser sidled up to me. “Oh, you’re just a new one,” she said. “You just don’t get the Caucuses yet, but you will.”

 

Then one of the staunchest Kucinich supporters said he liked Richardson’s foreign policy, and that he might just go to the Richardson room. Other so-called Kucinich supporters snuck out one of the two classroom doors and the numbers shrank further. “The Kucinich camp makes a splintering sound,” I posted to Twitter.

 

Obama representatives came in to remind the Kucinich folks that Denny K had asked them to throw in for Obama in case of emergency. “But don’t you guys have plenty of supporters?” one Kucinich-ite asked. “How about if you send some of them here so we can get a single delegate?”

 

For future reference, Caucusers: The big man on the block isn’t giving up his supporters so you can get a delegate. Don’t even bother asking, or you’ll get that same look that the Obama corraler gave the Kucinich supporter with that pretty little option.

 

Time to be counted

Shortly after the Kucinich camp started falling apart, Letsch announced the final five minutes of Round Two. Faced with the choice of sticking around for the continued nonsense of negotiating with the non-viable Richardson campaign or actually being counted for an excellent candidate, I threw in the towel and followed my secret plan: I was heading for Edwards’ pastures.

 

In the gym, the Hillary supporters frothed next to me—they had 102 of the necessary 108 caucusers, but were using their position next to the gym door to rally the the lower-tier voters streaming in. “Six more votes!” they chanted. “Five more votes! Four more votes!”

 

 

With 30 seconds to go, they hit 110, narrowly beating the threshold for viability and netting themselves two delegates.

 

Final count for the rest of the top tier: Obama, 342 caucusers and 5 delegates; Edwards, 234 caucusers and 4 delegates.

 

 

Delegating authority

Letsch called for volunteers from each camp to witness him call in the results, and I wandered up to the table out of curiosity. When he hung up and I turned around, the Edwards precinct captain was standing in the middle of the gym writing down names.

 

“You should get on the list to be an alternate delegate,” said Sam Garchik of Blog for Iowa, a fellow Edwards caucuser. “They almost always seat all the alternates.” I followed his advice. After all, what could it hurt to be on the list?

 

The Edwards precinct captain read the first delegate nominee’s name aloud, and the man in question balked. “I didn’t know that was what I was signing up for.”

 

Garchik looked at me. I looked at Garchik. “She’ll take his place,” he said.

 

A voice-vote later, I blocked off March 15.

 

“Out East, you probably have to make calls for six years to even get noticed by the party, right?” Garchik said. “Not out here. Welcome to Iowa politics.”

 

Genie Gratto still can’t believe she’s politicking in Iowa, and while she takes it very seriously, it makes her giggle nonetheless. She blogs about the rest of her Iowa life at The Inadvertent Gardener.