Inside An Iowa Caucus

Inside an Iowa Caucus

(Warning - this is very long)

I’m a big supporter of John Edwards. I caucused for him in 2004 and again this past Thursday. The difference this time was that I was a precinct captain for Edwards, which means that it was my job to gather all of the Edward’s supporters that were in my precinct on caucus night and then represent them during the meeting.

How did I become a captain? In 2004 I did a lot of volunteering for John Edwards – phone calls, mailings and a little bit of on foot canvassing. This time around I didn’t do as much – very busy at work, we just moved into a new home in September so I’ve been kept busy decorating and then add to that some minor health problems. So a couple of weeks ago I was finally able to do a little bit of volunteering on the phone. I made calls from a union hall in Des Moines. The hall is located in a very industrial and very poor area of Des Moines. I walked in and saw a room lined with 5 or 6 tables all set up school room fashion. On one side of each table were chairs and in front of each chair were phones that had been set up temporarily just to make the campaign calls. And of course on one side of each table were all of these phone lines and cords hanging every which way. The day I worked, about half the staff making calls were volunteers who came there every day and worked 16-18 hours a day. A few were from out of state. They had moved to Des Moines temporarily to work for Edwards. The rest of us were volunteers who were volunteering a few hours here and there. Other than the ones from out of state, the rest of us were “locals” and we represented all walks of life. I didn’t meet all of the volunteers but the ones I did meet broke down this way. One was an attorney, one a nurse, another one a truck driver, a farmer, a stay at home mom, an airline pilot, a cook from McDonalds and myself. When I left the union hall the day I volunteered I told them that if anyone in my area needed a ride to the caucus to call me.

Well, last Thursday, the day of the caucus, I received a phone call at around noon asking me if I would be willing to be the precinct captain because the woman who was going to do just didn’t want the responsibility. I hesitated because my nephew was a captain for Edwards at another precinct and I knew that he had went to at least one meeting teaching him what he needed to do. They assured me I could do it and that I would have help from a volunteer who was here from California.

I left work a little early so I could go to a local union hall to pick up my packet of “stuff” for the caucus. There was an Edwards’s campaign office in downtown Des Moines but the union hall was where the phone banks had been set up for the Edwards campaign. The hall is located in a very industrial and very poor area of Des Moines. I drove up the building expecting to just get out of my car and walk in but instead there were probably 50-75 cars parked all over the area which means I had to walk in heels on icy streets to even get inside. Once inside the young man (volunteer) who had called me directed me to his area of this big open room and gave me the packet I needed to “captain” the caucus. A few weeks ago when I worked in that same building it was very busy but for some reason I thought on the day of the caucus it wouldn’t be but I was wrong. There on those same tables I worked a few weeks ago were volunteers making the same calls I had made. Calling to be sure that voters had rides and that they were still committed to Edwards and also calls to non Edward’s supporters trying to get their vote. As I started to leave the young man who instructed me on the being a captain told me to walk around and talk to others in the room and to go say hello to John’s family. I looked around and then I saw his parents and noticed John’s two kids – Emma Claire and Jack – running around. I couldn’t see myself going to up them so I just decided to leave but as I was getting closer to the door someone tapped me on my shoulder. I turned around and was looking at a woman who said, “thank you for whatever help you’re giving John tonight.” I told her it was my pleasure and that I was hoping that he was going to win. She then said, “I’m John’s sister.” I stood there for a second trying to comprehend what she had just said. I then said, “John Edward’s sister??” And she said “yes, and this is my husband.” I shook both of their hands and as I was doing that John’s mother walked up to us. She also shook my hand and also thanked me for helping John. As I’m talking to the three of them his mom motioned for her husband, John’s dad, to come over so then I got to meet him and he also thanked me. After a short time John’s parents walked away and started talking to someone else but I stood there and talked to John’s sister and brother in law for what seemed like a very long time to me – probably 10 minutes. They asked a lot about me and a lot about Des Moines and Iowa. They kept complimenting Iowans and how kind everyone was. They told me they lived in Maryland and had come to Des Moines to support John in his bid for the White House. I asked them if John and Elizabeth were going to be coming because I thought if they are my husband and dinner would just have to wait. They said that both of them had been there earlier in the day and that there were out meeting other volunteers in the area. As we were talking John’s kids were running around, screaming and carrying on like a normal 6 and 8 year old. When I went to leave John’s mother came back up to me and gave me a hug and again thanked me for “whatever you’re doing to help John.” She also asked if I was coming to the victory speech downtown at the hotel. I told her no, that I had to work tomorrow but she assured that it was not going to be a late night because John was taking off to New Hampshire around 11:00 PM. As I was driving home thinking about what had just happened the one thing that stood out above everything else was that they, meaning John’s parents as well as his sister and brother in law, were just everyday people. Just like you or me. Even to how there were dressed, sweat pants, jeans, flannel shirt. His brother in law had a suit jacket on but his sister was wearing jeans and a sweatshirt. It was quite the experience.

Now on to the caucus itself. I live in a suburb of Des Moines, Pleasant Hill, which because of new homes has grown dramatically in the last few years. I would estimate the population here at approximately 9,000-10,000 people. Because of the growth they had to set up a second caucus site for the democrats. We met at our local youth center. The other democratic site was at a grade school and the Republicans met at the club house at our local golf course, Copper Creek.

The rules of the Democratic caucus state that everyone who wants to participate in the caucus has to be inside the building at the precinct site by 7:00 PM because at 7:00 PM the doors are locked, no one else is allowed in at that point. The doors actually open at 6:00 but because I was a precinct captain we were allowed in at 5:30. I arrived early because I wanted Edwards’s signs, buttons, flyers, stickers etc there for his supporters and I wanted to get all of that organized, which I did. I set everything up in the far back corner of the room, got a table and got some chairs set up in my area.

Remember me telling you earlier that I was supposed to have an Edwards volunteer from California to help me? Well, I didn’t know that I was supposed to pick her up so when I was only about 5 minutes from the caucus site she calls me. She didn’t want me to be late getting things set up so she said she would just have the hotel shuttle drive her to the site. Well the driver was not familiar with my area so while I’m trying to get everything set up I’m on my cell phone giving him turn by turn directions to where we were. Marie finally got there and was able to help for a while but as you will see later in this story she was not available to help me.

At 6:00 voters were allowed in the doors. The first thing we all had to do was to sign in. If your name is on the list the county provided to our precinct then all you have to do is to sign up and indicate who, if anyone, you are supporting. If you haven’t decided you leave that blank and then you are considered an “undecided.” If someone came in as an Independent or Republican then they had to re-register as a Democrat knowing that they can change back later. Of course along with myself there were precinct captains there for all the other candidates as well. I guess I need to clarify that – there were just three of us. One each for Clinton, Obama, Richardson and then of course Edwards. There was nobody there for Dodd or Biden.

Part of my job as captain was to greet those that were there for Edwards and get them back to our little area of the room. There was such a big crowd that the signing in took a lot longer than the organizers planned so before everyone got signed in and in there candidates area (those undecided stayed together) the precinct chairperson brought the meeting to order. The “business” part of the caucus probably took about 15 minutes. During that time they explained the caucus rules and took questions. One of those rules are that before we begin the voting process anyone who is in the room as a visitor, meaning they were not an Iowa registered voter, had to leave the candidates area and go the front of the room by the precinct chair person. So those who brought kids or other visitors were then separated which meant that my helper from California, Marie, had to leave our group. More on Marie later.

In the Democratic caucus each candidate has to become “viable” for their votes to count. Viability means that they have to have enough votes to meet 15% of the total voters at that caucus. In our caucus site there were 237 voters (double of what it was in 2004) which means that each candidate had to have at least 36 votes (they round up) to have their candidate counted. This is done in 3 steps/3 votes.

Before I get the steps involved I just have to comment on the excitement and enthusiasm that was present in each candidates group, although because we had more people we were louder than the others. Someone started a chant, “Go John Go.” And it just kept getting louder and louder. Then Obama’s people started saying “Obama Oh 8” and it kept getting louder and louder. Someone on our group started “John Edwards is our man” and it just got louder and louder. And this went on off and on all evening.

After the visitors were moved to the front of the room the chair person gave each candidate 10 minutes to come up with our first vote. Well, it was obvious from the very start that Edwards had more people there than the other candidates which made it difficult to get an exact count. One of the Edwards supporters was an older guy who has lived in Pleasant Hill for many, many years so he offered to help me and what a huge help he was. We had everyone that was there for Edwards raise their hands and then as we counted them they put there hand down. It was still chaotic but we were able to get a first vote count. We had 75 votes on the first vote so we knew that we easily were viable. Clinton and Obama were also viable but Richardson was not. They only had 33 people there for him. I should add that there were two there for Dodd and they left before the voting even started.

So after the first vote the precinct chair person gave all the groups 15 minutes to try increase their votes by trying to convince people in other candidates groups change candidates. And of course the one really trying to do this was Richardson’s group because if they didn’t gain 3 more votes they would not be viable. If they aren’t viable by the 2^nd vote then they have the choice to move to another candidate or sit on their Richardson candidate but not have their votes counted. Not only were all of us going after Richardson’s people to move to Edwards but all of us (Obama’s and Clinton’s group) were also going after the “undecided” trying to convince them that Edwards or Obama or Clinton was the right choice. There was a lot of issues being talked about which is what makes the whole caucus experience so much fun. You need to know the issues if you want to try to convince a Richardson supporter or an undecided to come join up with Edwards. I had a lot of help with that. There were two young men, probably 20 years old who were over there pounding the issues with people. There were also others who were very passionate about Edwards and what he is trying to do and they were over there helping.

After the 2^nd vote we actually increased our number to 79 – we had pulled a couple of people from the Richardson camp to our camp and also convinced a couple of those who were undecided. Not sure what Obama or Clinton had at this point. It was so crazy trying to count the heads in our group that you couldn’t see what was happening anyplace else. Again, to be sure we did the raising of the hands to count. Richardson’s people were not viable so then began the 3^rd vote.

During the 3^rd vote it got even crazier because everyone knew this vote would be the final one. We had another 15 minutes and we had decided that we didn’t want to count everyone again so we set up 3 people who acted as gatekeepers for our Edwards group. As we convinced others to join us they the gatekeepers kept everyone we already had behind them and as others joined us they added them to the 79 we knew we had. At the beginning of the 3^rd vote there were still about 25 people who were either for Richardson or undecided and of course Obama’s and Clinton’s people were after them just like we were. But we came out the winners – we picked up another 17 people which brought out total to 96 people there for Edwards. Obama ended up with 72, Clinton with 65 and then there 4 Richardson supporters who refused to move so their votes didn’t count.

There is a calculation process they use to come up with the delegates and after we did all of that Edwards had 3 delegates going to the Polk County Convention and there were 2 delegates each for Clinton and Obama.

After the votes were counted and verified each precinct captain had to call in the total votes and delegate number into their candidates’ headquarters. In addition the chair had to report those same numbers to the state and then someone somewhere matches them all up.

The last step was to nominate the delegates to the county convention. The two young men I spoke of earlier volunteered along with another man who was maybe 45 years old. Now those three will go to the county convention this summer.

Back to Marie. During this whole thing she was at the front of the room watching this all take place. After it was over she came over and gave everyone big hugs and was extremely happy with the outcome. She asked me and my sister who was with me to come to the party at the hotel but we didn’t go. I did give her ride to the hotel and on the way there I learned a lot more about her. She is an attorney in California, the LA area and she has a very, very famous last name. She is as cute as can be, petite, dark hair and she is in her late 30’s. On the way to the hotel she called both of her parents, who live in Sherman Oaks, and was telling them about her first caucus experience. I found out that she has been volunteering for John Edwards since 2002. Her plans were to fly home to California the following morning but we heard her on the phone say, “Dad, I know I told you I would be home tomorrow but instead I’m going to try to get a flight to New Hampshire in the morning which means the soonest I’ll be home is next Wednesday.” She gave me her business card and asked me to call her in a few weeks. I don’t know if she is related to the famous person who has her last name but I plan on asking her when I make that call.

So there you have it - a view of an Iowa caucus from the inside. Some people argue that a caucus is such an odd way of picking a presidential candidate and that may be true BUT what other time in today’s hectic and shaded world can you take a couple hours of your time, go into a room with your neighbors and in a peaceful and fun environment talk politics and then have those discussions culminate into a vote for the President of the United States.

Excuse my typos and any other mis-steps I may have made.