I know everyone's probably sick of reading stories about Iowa, so I apologize. But I decided that I wanted to get some of my experiences written down, for my own purposes if nothing else.
I live in Minnesota and have been involved with the Obama campaign for quite a few months. When I've been able, I've driven down to Iowa to help out there too. I've only lived in this part of the country for a year, and it's the first time I've ever been able to have an influence on the nomination process. It's easy to get caught up in the excitement!
I had planned to go to Iowa again on Jan. 2, and then again on Caucus Day. Unfortunately, I got sick on Jan. 1 (some sort of stomach flu, not because of excessive celebrating!) and couldn't go. But on Caucus Day, I decided I felt well enough after lunch to head down. I hadn't called or signed up-- I just got in my car and drove, to Mason City, Iowa, the nearest office to MN. More below....
I arrived in Mason City just before 5 pm. It was a lot later than I had wanted to be there, and I was a bit worried that my presence would do more harm than good, forcing campaign workers to deal with me and figure out what I could do. But I hoped there would be some way for me to help.
As it turned out, the first person I ran into at Mason City HQ was one of the organizers for my hometown in Minnesota. She was about to head out to a small rural precinct where the campaign didn't have a Precinct Captain. She asked me to help. I was thrilled.
We drove for about 30 minutes to Rockwell, Iowa (pop. about 1,000). Two precincts were holding their caucuses in the same building, a little community center, in adjoining rooms. We had been told to focus on the larger precinct (2004 turnout, approx. 50) and only do the smaller one if we had extra time (2004 turnout: 3).
We didn't know how much we'd be allowed to do, given that neither of us was a resident of the precinct, or even the state. Turns out we were allowed to do everything except vote!
We set up some signs in a corner of both rooms and readied our stickers, some flyers, etc., and read over some caucus procedure sheets (neither of us had done this before). I mostly handled the smaller room and helped in the larger room when I could.
People started arriving. Pretty soon, there was a line stretching much of the way around the larger room. More and more people showed up. There ended up being over 100 people in attendance (a reminder: around 50 showed up in the previous record year of 2004). In the other room, where 3 people had attended the 2004 caucuses, there ended up being 20, a nearly 7-fold increase!
By 7:00 in the small room, everyone was seated and ready to start. The chair had everyone go to their corner, and lo and behold. In this tiny rural precinct (where one resident had told me there were "no young people"), nearly half the attendees came to my corner! The initial count was: Obama 8, Clinton 8, Edwards 3, Dodd 1. The one Dodd person then went to Edwards, but still Edwards was short of the viability threshold (in a precinct with 2 delegates like this one, viability is 25% instead of the usual 15%). The Edwards supporters dispersed, one to Obama, 2 to Clinton, and one went home. Final tallies: Obama 9, Clinton 10. We each got 1 delegate and were done by about 7:10. I headed over to the larger room.
The larger room was quite chaotic. I have to say that the people who were in charge didn't really seem to know what they were doing. One of them was wearing a large button announcing herself as an Edwards precinct captain. That didn't really seem appropriate to me, as she was carrying out her official duties. I should add also that the registration table for the entire precinct was initially set up right under the signs for Clinton. We were complaining about this (as it looked rather bad) and apparently someone heard us, reported our complaint to the chair, and they took the signs down for the duration of registration.
Even more problematic was the way the initial count was conducted. Everyone was told to move into their initial preference groups. There was a large group for Clinton (largely if not mostly made up of senior citizens), an equally large group for Edwards, a smaller group for Obama, and several small groups for other candidates (even a couple of folks caucusing for "uncommitted"!). The viability threshold (15%) was 16 people. Now, moments after everyone had moved into groups, the caucus chair told all of the small groups (Kucinich, Richardson, Dodd, and Biden, I believe, were all represented) to MERGE INTO ONE GROUP because "they were not viable." Now I'm no expert in the Iowa caucuses, but this seemed like it was utterly wrong to me.
The way it should have happened was that each of these groups met, introduced each other, discussed what was happening, maybe attempted to persuade neighbors, etc. Then the caucus chair should have announced the viability threshold, had each group announce their numbers, and then determined which groups were viable and which not.
Following THAT, there should have been a period of discussion where everyone could attempt to persuade folks to switch groups.
Incidentally, at this point our Obama group was also not viable (we had 14, 2 short), but nothing was said to us. This is when I walked into the room from the other precinct. I immediately decided that, since we were a couple people short, I would start recruiting from the other small group (which by this point had decided to be for Dodd and numbered 12).
The precinct officer with the Edwards button shooed me away back to the Obama group, so I assumed there would be some later announcement about when we could start efforts at persuasion. I began chatting with our group and generally killing time. A few minutes later, I looked across the room, and there was the Clinton organizer, working on persuading the Dodd group!
So I hurried back over and went to work. The Dodd group was not budging. No one from our group was budging either. Questions were asked about what would happen next (with 2 non-viable groups not wanting to switch). I think a call might have been made to the IDP for guidance. Instructions were consulted. Uncertainty reigned for 15 or 20 minutes.
Finally the chair announced that there would be 30 minutes (starting then) for everyone to attempt to become viable and/or switch groups. Ugh. Time passed, the Dodd folks weren't budging, none of our supporters were budging. It was a standoff.
The chair made an announcement that the 30 minutes were nearly up. At the last moment, the Dodd group mysteriously dispersed-- not sure if they were told they had to, or what. A few wandered over to us, a few to Edwards, and a few refused to switch and left. We were viable at last.
After quite a bit more confusion and rules-consultation, final counts were established and delegates awarded. The final tally: Edwards 4, Clinton 4 (though Edwards had a handful more supporters, not enough for another delegate), Obama 1.
We headed back to HQ in Mason City, each of us receiving a phone call on the road from relatives who were watching TV. We found out that, despite how things had gone in our precinct, Obama won! What a night....
If you actually read this far, thanks, and feel free to add thoughts or info on proper caucus procedure.