The strange beginnings of the political process

After putting 10 months of tears and toil into the presidential race for their respective candidates, campaign staffers and volunteers from around Iowa and the rest of the country saw their efforts in the state com to an end for better or worse when voters voiced their opinions and possibly dictated the futures of people around the world in a scattered, grass-roots process known as the Iowa caucus.

Republicans and Democrats told the world that the men they wanted to run our country were presidential hopefuls Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama respectively.

The Democratic caucus process is much more complex and confusing than the Republican one. People from around each precinct in the state gather in a school hall, church or volunteered house and sit at a table that is designated for their candidate.

At 6 last night, precinct Director Angela Connelly was running around Hoover High School’s kitchen, where Des Moines precinct Webster 1 held it’s caucus, shuffling papers, barking orders and joking with her staffers and representatives from each campaign who sat at their folding lunch tables. Obama staffers served cookies, Hillary Clinton representatives made sure everyone there was registered to vote, and John Edwards advocates debating politics with the other tables.

By 7, 58 voters had shown up, the majority of them sitting at the Edwards and Obama tables and the rest showed their support for Hillary Clinton. But the weaker showing from Clinton supporters caused Webster 1, which is only allowed two delegates, to be divided between Edwards and Obama.

After intense debate and juggling of voters by both tables, the two candidates tied. The final head count was 29-29.

When all was said and done, Connelly called the results in to the Polk County Convention Center, where the results from each Polk County precinct were compiled and sent to the Iowa Democratic Party.

But it could have gone much different. Had over 85 percent of the 58 voters at the caucus been sitting at Edwards’ table, Obama would have been declared not viable and Edwards would have received both delegates from that precinct. Larger precincts are allowed more delegates. In the room across from the kitchen, Precinct 9 voters gave a delegate a piece to Clinton, Obama and Edwards.

Three doors down the hall in the school’s auditorium a quarter after 6, Republican Precinct 12 was filling up and Director Lawrence Cooper running back and forth across the room, printing more copies for the waning stack of registration forms, trying to make sure the room had an American Flag for when the voters would sing the Star Spangled Banner just before casting their vote and greeting right wingers as they entered the room.

The Republican process is much simpler – the voters wrote the name of their
candidate on a three-by-five note card and tossed it into a hat after listening to representatives from each campaign office give their spiel as to why their candidate is better.

Lawrence then took the results back to his house, called the Polk County GOP and told them that 67 people voted for Huckabee, 26 for Mitt Romney, 16 for Ron Paul, 16 for Fred Thompson, four for Duncan Hunter and two for Rudy Giuliani.

And just like that, what has been hailed for 36 years as the premier political event in the country and possibly the world was over.

This is democracy at it’s most visceral stage. “They came, they debated, they cajoled, they decided,” said an ABC reporter to the camera. This is where the most important political decision in the world starts every four years – in an old fire hall with ten people arguing their positions or in a big-city convention center where one representative from each candidate gives their leader’s final push in Iowa to 500 people.

There nothing more for Iowans to do now but wait until November, when they will cast their votes for Democrat or Republican.

-Hedgefund