Caucus hysteria is over. All eyes have been on Iowa the last couple days, and with record turnout of nearly 120,000 eligible voters, this caucus has been unprecedented.
Everywhere you go, everyone you talk to, all talk has been on the caucus. I became so overwhelmed with it all Wednesday night, that I tried to escape by going to get a drink at a local bar here in Ames, only to run into people with Rock the Caucus, striking up even more political conversation; it has simply been unavoidable.
One of the things I was curious about going into this was if ALL the massive media attention would turn people off and they’d get sick of it. However, from what I’ve seen, Iowans have been eating it up. They love the attention, mainly because we don’t get a lot of it here; this is our time to shine. But also, I think that the people who DID caucus are really passionate about the political process and excited to be part of it.
One of the main questions going into the caucuses was, “Are the college students going to show up?” With school being out of session, a football game they could watch instead, it being incredibly cold out, and them having to give up a couple hours of their night, our demographic has been accused of being unmotivated, uninterested, and even lazy. But the youth vote at this year's Iowa Caucus TRIPLED from 2004, and I saw them out there just as involved as the rest. The conclusion I’ve come to is that the students who turned out are the same ones that would have turned out whether the caucus was on January 3 or February 3; these young voters, many of them first timers, are excited to be part of such a historical moment, and that’s why they caucused.
Grassroots campaigning has also been a huge factor in getting voters out: door-to-door knocking, last minute calls, and of course initiatives on social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace…even the people I saw at the bar simply trying to get people out to caucus; it was everything done in those last hours that really made a difference here in Iowa, not only for individual campaigns, but even in overall turnout.
Celebrities came out as well; Ron Howard, a Clinton supporter, was simply hanging out at the caucus I attended and Scarlett Johansson reportedly walked into an Ames café yesterday and began talking to people about caucusing (she also made other appearances in support of Obama).
Caucus results weren’t all that surprising based on polls going into Thursday night. Obama came out on top of the Democratic side with 37% of delegates, while Huckabee took the Republican side despite recent controversy over his mudslinging ad directed at Romney.
I didn’t caucus myself since I’m registered as an independent, but I attended a democratic caucus, which was a fascinating process that I’m glad I was able to observe. I was really surprised at the amount of people who actually showed up undecided or not fully committed. In this particular precinct for instance, Richardson didn’t have enough people to be a viable preference group, so they either had to disperse to other candidates (possibly their second choice if they had thought about it ahead of time) or move to the uncommitted group.
But now as the media packs up their circus and heads to New Hampshire, it’s hard to say how much the results here in Iowa will affect the ongoing race. We know what history tells us, but history’s also never shown a race this close.
And does Iowa, a state with only 7 electoral votes out of 538, now become old news? I guess these are questions we’ll see answered in the weeks and months ahead, but overall it’s been an exciting time for us here in Iowa.
For Democratic Caucus results, click here.
For Republican Caucus results, click here.
Pictures:
Voters signing in and registering
Caucusers wait for things to get started.
Hillary's campaign brough snacks for supporters to munch on while they wait.
Before preference groups were formed...
After preference groups were formed.
Me with Ron Howard, who came to the caucus to show his support