Iowa Caucus 2012

January 3rd, 2012 - Iowa Caucus Night

You know, I love politics. I really do. And I think that if you have a privilege/opportunity/responsibility like voting in a caucus, that you should make sure you do that. Especially if you have an opinion about anything. Which I tend to have. (Hence a political blog...) With all of that being said, I wasn't going to go to my caucus precinct tonight.
The way I figured was that since Obama is our incumbent candidate, there wasn't a reason to go because there wouldn't be any voting last four years ago. And frankly, I didn't want to sit through all the business that would take place instead. The one thing that kept me from saying no completely was the opportunity to become a county delegate. But I have also been bugging my husband about the fact that he needed to go caucus tonight as he had never experienced it before. He was also a little undecided on whether he would go caucus as a Democrat or a Republican. In the end, he decided to go to the Republican Caucus and he guilt-ed me into going to mine.

Now let me just point out here that this caucus night is so much different than four years ago. For one, it was a lot colder four years ago and we actually had snow! :) But more importantly than that, it was a very special and unique election process four years ago. There was no incumbent four years ago on either party and that's something that doesn't happen very often. And Iowans turned out in record numbers last time and in overwhelming support of Obama.

So tonight, we headed to our separate caucus locations to do our duty as Iowans. AJ told me that there were 66 people that showed up to caucus for the Republicans. In his precinct, Mitt Romney came in first and Ron Paul came in second within six votes. 
When I showed up at my location, it was a much smaller turnout. We had just under 30 people there and we had about five precincts that were combined at our one location. So in my specific precinct, there were only seven of us. At first, I was some-what surprised at the small turn-out, but then I thought, well people probably didn't show up just as I wasn't going to - Obama has it. After some people did some introductions, we had a live broadcast with President Obama. That was pretty cool! His first words were, "Hello Iowa! I miss you!" Always good to know that we've been missed... :) There are some quotes of his that I took down I'll mention later, but first he took some questions from a couple of precincts elsewhere. One was in Coralville and the other in Cedar Rapids. When they showed those precincts I was shocked at the number of people that were there! One was at a performing arts center and the other at a gym at a school - and they were packed!! It was then that I realized probably the true reason why there was such a small turn-out at my caucus tonight. I now live in Western Iowa. It is largely a Republican area. There are just far fewer Democrats on this side of the state compared to Eastern Iowa, which was where I caucused four years ago.
Here were some of the quotes I liked from Obama's speech tonight: 

"Change is not easy. It never is."
"You guys inspire me every single day."
"There is nothing we can't accomplish when determined citizens come together."
"We've done a lot, but we have much more to do." 

After Obama spoke, it was time to break up into our precinct and pick our delegates for the county convention that takes place in March. As I said earlier, there were only seven us in my precinct (which is determined on where you live) and we needed to elect three delegates. My chances were looking good! However, I didn't want to step on anyone's toes but after a while (and some chit-chat) no one was really speaking up. So I spoke up and said I would like to be a delegate. And that was that! I'm now going to be a delegate at the county convention in March! And I'm very excited!! It should be a great experience and hopefully I'll learn even more about how the party works. Plus it'll give me more things to blog about! :) 
I also have to mention here another quote from tonight that I really enjoyed. There was an older woman at the caucus who said she had been volunteering with the Democratic Party since she was 15 - so for some time now! And she had a really great quote that really makes you think:

"A democracy is run by the people, not money. But I'll be damned if it's not being run by money these days." 

I couldn't help think what a great quote that is! I don't care what party you support, but our democracy - what America is founded on - is run by the people. But things have gotten away from us and more and more it's the money that counts. And that's not a country I'm okay living in. It needs to change.

Now that we're both back at home, we're watching the results come in on CNN. And I have to say, this is what I was looking forward to the most. Even within the last couple of weeks, Iowans have continued to keep an open mind and different candidates jumped in and out of first place in the polls. And the incoming results are showing the same thing. Right now (with about 48% reporting) it is a very close tie between candidates - Santorum and Romney with Paul fairly close behind in third. Even with almost half of the state reporting, they can't make a prediction because it's too close. This wasn't the case four years ago. So now we wait and see what the final results tally in as...

In the meantime, here are some pictures from my caucus tonight (take via my cell phone)

Message from President Obama

With 88% of Iowa precincts reporting, CNN made their prediction. Although it was a little unusual... they only mentioned who would win third place, fourth, fifth and sixth place. 

Look at this screen shot. They couldn't, at this point, determine who would get first or second place. The tie between Romney and Santorum was too close. In this screen shot, it was a difference of 13 votes! 13!! In true Iowa Style (as my husband says), Iowans are making every vote count. It is literally a "to-the-vote" process. It's unbelievable but also incredibly awesome. And, in all honestly, it gives me hope and belief in our democracy and political process. 

Ron Paul (21%) and Newt Gingrich (13%) have both made announcements that they will of course continue on to New Hampshire, which is no surprise. It will be interesting to see how New Hampshire will vote, especially after such a close race here in Iowa. Surprisingly, Michele Bachmann is also going to continue to New Hampshire with only 5% of the vote. At least according to her speech. After such a poor showing in Iowa, I really don't think she'll last very long after New Hampshire. Rick Perry, who came in with 10% of the vote, is going back to Texas to "reassess" his campaign. Interesting choice of words... but I'm betting he doesn't continue on.

Before all the votes are in and counted for, Rick Santorum takes to the stage to thank Iowa. He is still tied with Romney at 25% but the two keep flip-flopping back and forth between 1st and 2nd with the vote difference ranging anywhere between 13 and 125. Santorum's speech is very much faith based and also sounds more like a political rally speech than the normal "thank you" speech you hear after election nights. He's definitely taking this opportunity in the national spotlight to help gear up his campaign before New Hampshire. Which is probably a smart move on his part because I don't believe he's been very popular in polls elsewhere in the US.

Mitt Romney has also taken the stage yet without all of the final numbers in yet. He's playing the "good sportsman" card as he congratulates the other candidates first. Already this sounds like the more appropriate "thank you" speech that candidates normally give. As Romney is speaking, CNN is showing 99% of the precincts reporting and Santorum is ahead by 5 votes. Five. Un-be-lievable! They're also reporting that this will be the closest Iowa caucus results in history, the last closest were back in 1976 with GHW Bush and Regan they were separated by 2100 votes! It will also most likely be the closest caucus/primary vote throughout the US as well. The previous record was held in South Dakota at their primary in 1936 which was decided by 257 votes.

Check out this screenshot... 

There is a ONE vote difference!! ONE VOTE!! WOW! This was still with 99% reporting and taken at 12:39am. Just... wow. But this does prove a point - every vote counts. So get out and vote! Otherwise, you lose the right to voice your opinion.

The (almost) final tally - Santorum: 29,968      Romney: 29,964

I'm calling it quits. We're waiting on one precinct in Iowa. And so I'll write another blog tomorrow with the final final tally. (Just a note, the rest of this was written previously, just in case it doesn't make sense...)
What an unbelievable finish. I did not expect this. Not this close! And I'm not very happy about it! haha Apparently I'm the type of person that has to stay up to hear the final results and so this has made for a very late night! But, as my husband continued to point out to me - it's history in the making. Never has there been such a close vote! Never have I seen the two top candidates flip back and forth between first and second place! It's been fascinating to watch, don't get me wrong. I just wish it would have ended a couple of hours ago... :) 

Well, the Iowa Caucuses are now done. We've spent the time listening to the candidates, asking our questions and figuring out who had the best answers. The rest of the nation is up. We've done our part. Let's see if they follow the path we've laid out. Here is a quote from the Huffington Post about those who have won the Iowa Caucuses in the past: 

Seven democrats in 10 caucuses who won in Iowa have ended up winning their party's nomination, according to the Des Moines Register. (Two were incumbents who ran unopposed.)
Six Republican winners in Iowa, out of nine contests there, have gone on to win the GOP nomination. (Three were incumbents who ran unopposed.)

So, does Iowa really matter? Eh, maybe not. But do we pride ourselves on our first in the nation status? Yes. There is one thing however that I think we can all agree on... we'll be glad to get a break from all the political ads and robo-calls for a while... :)