IowaPolitics.com BlogWatch

"I honestly haven't decided when I'll say something," Iowa Democratic
Party chair Scott Brennan told party activists in Iowa City Sunday. As
party chair, Brennan is also a national convention superdelegate, and
he and Senator Tom Harkin are the only two Iowa superdelegates who are
still uncommitted. "I'm a Pollyanna but I still have some hope that
after we finish on June 3rd, in the next couple weeks after that we'll
have some clarity, and I'll never have to make that decision," said
Brennan. Part of Brennan's reticence is his wish to protect Iowa's
first in the nation role. "Part of the reason I think Iowa remains
first and why we attract candidates is that we been an honest broker,"
he said.

Labels: IDP

The big news out of the 4th District Democratic Convention was that
Barack Obama picked up a national delegate. The 4th District had 507
seats to fill. At first count 425 of the seats were filled with
delegates and the first count was Obama 231, Clinton 147, Edwards 42,
Uncommitted 5. The remaining seats were filled with alternates. I was
one of the alternates that were seated for Obama. After the alternates
were seated the count was Obama 274, Clinton 175, Edwards 52,
Uncommitted 6. The number for viability was 76. The Edwards group (and
the uncommitteds) weren't viabile. The national delegate count at this
time was Obama 3, Clinton 2, with one delegate up for grabs. We then
broke into preference groups for an hour where both the Clinton and
Obama groups could persuade the non-viable groups to come to their
side.

Labels: Barack_Obama, IDP

"The headline out of Iowa is going to be 'Obama gains one,'" I told my
fellow delegates during casual conversations in the hours of down time
at Saturday's 2nd Congressional District Democratic convention. So
when I finally got home, and could access the national political blogs
that for some reason the Mount Vernon School District's wireless
network had blocked, what did I read? "Obama loses one." It's the
latest example of national political writers just not understanding
Iowa's caucus and convention process. On Thursday, I published a
comprehensive look at the math that showed Obama taking 15 delegates,
Clinton winning nine, and Edwards definitely getting two, with three
delegates still in play, and one more delegate possibly shifting
pending deals between candidates.

Labels: Barack_Obama, Hillary_Clinton, IDP

Attendance, Tactics Will Shape Results… They say half the game is just
showing up, and that's true for Iowa's Democratic congressional
district conventions. The other half may be tactical politics, as
supporters of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama try to deny the other
campaign any advantage. The most important factors in determining how
many national delegates Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and, yes,
former candidate John Edwards get on Saturday will be which campaign
does the best job of getting its share of the 2,500 delegates to
travel to the conventions, and who can quietly cut the best deals. A
district-by-district review of the delegate totals shows that three of
the 29 national delegate seats to be elected Saturday are up for
grabs.

Labels: Barack_Obama, Hillary_Clinton, IDP

They say half the game is just showing up, and that's true for Iowa's
Democratic congressional district conventions. The other half may be
tactical politics, as supporters of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama
try to deny the other campaign any advantage. The most important
factors in determining how many national delegates Hillary Clinton,
Barack Obama, and, yes, former candidate John Edwards get on Saturday
will be which campaign does the best job of getting its share of the
2,500 delegates to travel to the conventions, and who can quietly cut
the best deals. A district-by-district review of the delegate totals
shows that three of the 29 national delegate seats to be elected
Saturday are up for grabs.

Labels: IDP

The Iowa Democratic Party is challenging U.S. Rep. Steve King's use of
his congressional Web site to promote controversial views on
presidential candidate Barack Obama, a story Iowa Independent broke
last month. King received publicity in mid-March for comments he made
about Obama to a radio reporter in Spencer. "The radical Islamists,
the al-Qaida ... would be dancing in the streets in greater numbers
than they did on Sept. 11 because they would declare victory in this
war on terror," King said in the interview. Democrats, who at this
point have just raised the matter in a news release, are considering a
formal challenge to King's posting. "Steve King is using his
taxpayer-funded website to promote his hateful comments toward a
Democratic Presidential candidate," said Iowa Democratic Party Chair
Scott Brennan. "King needs to stop doing his politicking from his
government office and get back to the work he was elected to do."

Labels: Barack_Obama, IDP, Steve_King

Carrie Giddins, recently departed Iowa Democratic Party communications director, was named the top political operative to watch by the Politico. Giddins, 33, left the IDP after a year stint there where she coordinated press coverage for the Iowa caucus -- an endeavor that had her working with over 3,000 journalists from around the globe. She is currently heading into the beltway, where she plans to start her own political communications consulting firm.

Labels: IDP

It appears delegate counting is a new pastime in America these days. Iowa Democrats, like their counterparts in other state parties, have a group of so-called "super" delegates to their party's national convention who get to cast their votes in Denver. How will those 11 folks vote? Governor Chet Culver is at the top of the list of super delegates from Iowa. He confirmed during a recent appearance on Iowa Public Television that he was being lobbied by both the Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama camps, but he is not ready to announce a preference. Culver's wife, Mari, endorsed John Edwards in December at a rally in Des Moines. Senator Tom Harkin is a super delegate. Harkin stayed out of the endorsement game before Iowa's 2008 Caucuses and has not indicated a preference between Clinton or Obama at this point.

Labels: Barack_Obama, Chet_Culver, Hillary_Clinton, IDP

Labels: Barack_Obama, Bill_Richardson, Chet_Culver, Chris_Dodd, Hillary_Clinton, IDP, Joe_Biden, John_Edwards, Tom_Harkin

The Democratic Iowa Caucuses are likely to be held on Thursday, Jan.
3, 2008, based on the recommendations of the Iowa Democratic Party
leadership to the State Central Committee, according to media reports.
The State Central Committee will finalize the date on a conference
call Sunday. Jan. 3 is the same date as the Republican Caucuses, and
it is the earliest caucus date in history. The implications of this
date have been thoroughly analyzed during the past two months of
speculation, but a brief summary of some of the possible effects is
located below the fold. No colleges or universities will have ended
their winter breaks by this date. Conventional wisdom is that this
will make Sen. Barack Obama's campaign to organize students difficult,
but the payoffs of a good student organization will be larger if
students are spread out across multiple cities rather than
concentrated in a few big precincts.

Labels: caucus dates, IDP

Cut those holiday plans a little short. Iowa Democrats and Republicans
will caucus the same night after all. At 2 pm Thursday afternoon, the
Iowa Democratic Party will notify its 50 or so members of the state
central committee to be close to their phones Sunday night. That's
when State Party Chair Scott Brennan will hold a statewide conference
call at 8 pm to say he wants the caucuses to move up to January third,
instead of the previously scheduled (very loosely scheduled) January
14th. I'm not sure I can tell you a single Democrat who thought Dems
would stick to their original date. The move lets the Dems caucus with
the Repubs, something that oughta make all of our out-of-state
friends' bosses happy.

Labels: caucus dates, IDP

In the open seat for House District 89 currently held by Republican
Sandy Greiner, Larry Marek, a farmer with ties to agribusiness and to
the gaming industry has announced his candidacy for the Democratic
nomination. As John Deeth notes, Marek has been an active member of
the Soybean Promotion Board (along with Farm Bureau, the Corngrowers
and the Cattlemen) and was described by the Iowa City Press-Citizen as
"an early backer of the Riverside Casino & Hotel project." District 89
is a potentially competitive district but one that will be an uphill
battle in 2008 as the Republicans have a significant registration
advantage. With Marek's background, he seems like the type of "Blue
Dog Dem" who could do very well in the district. Plus, his background
is sure to give him an advantage raising money.

Labels: IDP

Why would a national organization with national name recognition
choose to hold its first presidential forum in Iowa? "This forum is
clearly another example of why the Iowa caucuses are so important,"
Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Scott Brennan said following Monday's
event. "Not only do organizers understand that presidential candidates
are in our state, but it is a reflection on the fact that if the Iowa
people are supporting an event, the candidates know it is something
they should also be supporting." "Is there really any other place in
America where you could get 2,700 people, a former governor, the
current governor, at least one Iowa congressman and four Democratic
presidential candidates to come together on a Monday morning to talk
about cancer?" asked participant Ellen Jeffers. Gov. Chet Culver and
United States Rep. Dave Loebsack set out the importance of the event
and Iowa's role in raising the national conversation.

Labels: Chet_Culver, IDP

Chris Bowers has the numbers on the Democratic side at MyDD: Iowa, May 30, 1,238 likely caucus goers, MoE 2.7%. No trendlines. Edwards: 31; Clinton: 17; Obama: 17 ... I don't know whether Clinton and Obama are really that far back in Iowa, but I think it's fair to say that the recent ARG poll showing Clinton 31, Edwards 26 and Obama 11 was an outlier. ... I imagine that Obama does quite well among the "only have a cell phone" crowd, so polls may be understating his support. But if I were Obama, I would fire the scheduler who put him at a west-coast fundraiser instead of in Cedar Rapids on Saturday night. That was a crazy decision. He's rolling in money and is probably going to outraise Clinton in the second quarter. He's trailing in the Iowa polls and should have taken that opportunity to make the sale with party activists. Ordinary voters won't care a bit about who came to the Hall of Fame dinner. But every one of the 1,000 people who attended can probably influence at least a dozen friends and neighbors.

Labels: Barack_Obama, Hillary_Clinton, IDP, John_Edwards

When I was chair of the Iowa Democratic Party (back in the day), one of the questions I heard most often in the months leading up to the 2004 Iowa Caucuses was, "Why don't Iowa Democrats do a straw poll like Iowa Republicans do?" ... There's a simple, clear cut answer to why the Iowa Democratic Party doesn't do a straw poll and doesn't allow county parties to do them either: it's against the Democratic National Committee rules. That's because it would give Iowa two bites at the apple -- a pre-contest in addition to the one that counts in January . . . or December as the case may be). ... Don't get me wrong -- I'm a junkie for almost any kind of poll. I remember watching with fascination on C-Span the phenomenon that was George W. Bush at the 1999 straw poll (at that event, the Bush campaign blew through its self-imposed spending cap of $750,000 to buy even more $25 tickets to hand out). And I must admit I admire with envy the gobs and gobs of money the Iowa Republican Party is able to raise through the event. I'm not naive about the importance of money in presidential campaigns -- it's a valid measure of a candidate's strength and without enough of it, a campaign is doomed. Still, though, a contest of who can buy the most votes in a straw poll doesn't seem like a very rational way to determine the serious contenders, which is what the Iowa Republican straw poll will do.

Labels: GOP_straw_poll, IDP, RPI

... My initial opinions of the two leaders was that Brennan clearly came prepared and ready to talk about the issues as a seasoned political professional while Mosley was the down-home Republican who said what he meant, even if it was offensive or wasn't politically correct. Largely, it made me wonder how this man could possibly be chosen to represent a party as their chairman. While his down-home style, seemingly like most ordinary Iowa Republican caucusgoers, might be appealing to some I think it was a big turnoff to those in the audience seeking a more enlightened and vigorous discussion about the issues, not just gut reactions.

Labels: IDP, RPI