Today, the respected Des Moines Register poll of Iowa was released. The election in Iowa is "tight as a tick". David Yepsen of the Register has written an analysis of the poll results to accompany the statistics of the poll:
Obama’s gained 6 points in the last month and has opened up a statistically insignificant lead over Hillary Clinton and John Edwards. That lead looks even weaker when you consider a chunk of Obama’s support comes from younger adults, who are notoriously poor caucusgoers. (Only 5 percent of likely Democratic caucusgoers are under 25. In 2004, only 17 percent were under 29.)
So he needs to light some fires under those voters. Last week, he tried to do that by unloading a 50,000-piece flier aimed at college students. The piece even urged those "not from Iowa" to register to vote and caucus in their campus communities
The Des Moines Register’s David Yepsen fired the first shot at Obama’s outsourcing attempt:
That’s fine but these are the Iowa caucuses. Asking people who are "not from Iowa" to participate in them changes the nature of the event.
And trying to pack the caucuses with people from Illinois might taint Obama’s showing. Polls show Obama is in a close race with Hillary Clinton and John Edwards. Recent surveys show him with a lead of a few points. If he wins the Iowa caucuses with Illinois votes, his victory would be discounted by his opponents and media people.
The issue of out-of-state residents caucusing in Iowa came up recently when one of the candidates, Chris Dodd, urged his rivals to promise not to encourage their staffers working in Iowa to register as voters so they could participate in the caucuses here. Most of them agreed, including Obama’s campaign. (And, frankly, a few hundred staffers wouldn’t have much of an impact on the outcome anyway. Besides, most of those staffers will be working on caucus night and wouldn’t have time to participate.)
But turning out-of-state college students into Iowa voters is a different, larger, matter. Thousands of votes are involved and it risks offending long-time Iowa residents.
But, then, they do politics a little differently in Illinois than they do in Iowa.
The Chicago Tribune reported Senator Dodd’s concern:
"I was deeply disappointed to read today about the Obama campaign’s attempt to recruit thousands of out-of-state residents to come to Iowa for the caucuses," Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut said in a statement. "’New Politics’ shouldn’t be about scheming to evade either the spirit or the letter of the rules that guide the process. That may be the way politics is played in Chicago, but not in Iowa."
Politico’s Mike Allen followed up on the Iowa caucus theft story:
The campaign of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is drawing some local skepticism for a drive to recruit non-Iowans to caucus at their Iowa colleges.
"If you are not from Iowa, you can come back for the Iowa caucus and caucus in your college neighborhood," says a four-page "Students for Barack Obama" brochure provided to Politico.
David Yepsen of the Des Moines Register, the state’s leading political commentator, wrote in a blog post called "The Illinois Caucus" that the effort to increase participation by out-of-staters "risks offending long-time Iowa residents."
"Given that lots of students in Iowa’s colleges and universities are from Obama’s neighboring home state of Illinois, the effort could net him thousands of additional votes on caucus night," Yespen wrote.
A Hillary Rodham Clinton campaign official said: "We are not courting out-of-staters. The Iowa caucus ought to be for Iowans."
The instruction is part of an Obama campaign effort to counteract a potentially serious blow to youth support for his campaign: The Jan. 3 caucus date means colleges will still be on holiday break. [snip]
Yepsen wrote that the out-of-state college students’ participation would be legal, but said he isn’t certain "whether it’s fair, or politically smart."
"No presidential campaign in memory has ever made such a large, open attempt to encourage students from out of state, many of whom pay out-of-state tuition, to participate in the caucuses.," he said. "No other campaign appears to be doing it in this campaign cycle."
The question of who can participate was already sticky.
In early November, Dodd’s campaign staff asked the campaigns to pledge that their out-of-state staff and volunteers would not attempt to caucus. Most of the campaigns signed the pledge.
The Clinton official said: "We have a policy that if you move to Iowa for the express purpose of working on the campaign, you can not caucus."
Imagine if you will, the uproar, the horror, the editorials, the Big Blog rage, the PINO whelps, the Naderite fury, the Big Media savaging — if the Hillary Clinton campaign decided to organize and finance an operation to outsource the New Hampshire primary. Imagine - if the Hillary Clinton campaign organized, financed and implemented an invasion by armies of New Yorkers to vote in the New Hampshire Primary.
It would be perfectly legal. There are sufficient loopholes in the New Hampshire election law. Hotel/dormitories can accomodate mass barracks for imported New York turned New Hampshire voters. According to New Hampshire election law:
You may also register on election day at the polling place.
There is no minimum period of time you are required to have lived in the state before being allowed to register.
Of course, the Hillary Clinton campaign will do no such thing. The Hillary Clinton campaign will respect the integrity of the New Hampshire primary. Just because the financing and organization of such an effort is legal - it is wrong. Legal - but wrong. The New Hampshire primary belongs to the citizens of New Hampshire.
The New Hampshire primary belongs to the citizens of New Hampshire and the Iowa caucuses, flawed as they might be, belong to the citizens of Iowa. Because the caucus/primary system affects all Americans it is imperative that their integrity be protected.
Democrats should rally against Voter Fraud, not enable it.
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