Iowa Caucus 101

By Polichicks on November 29, 2007 7:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So with all the hoopla about the Iowa Caucus and the preceeding Heartland Presidential Forum, we had some questions. Like, what the heck is a caucus and who gives a hoot about Iowa anyway? So we decided to do some sleuthing, and (after fighting over who got to be Nancy Drew) we solved the mystery.

A caucus is a meeting where members of a political party make policy decisions and select candidates. Registered voters in Iowa select their Democratic and Republican presidential candidates by caucus instead of in a primary election.

The term "Iowa Caucus" really refers to the Iowa Caucuses, as there is a separate caucus held for each of Iowa's 1,784 precints. Democrats and Republicans caucus separately.

At Republican caucuses, participants show their candidate preferences by voting by paper ballot, a show of hands or dividing themselves by into groups according to candidate prefernece.

The Democratic process involves more drama. (As usual.) Democrats divide themselves into groups based on candidate preference. A candidate must get 15% of caucus goers' support in order to be "viable." Those candidate groups that are not "viable" can get others to join their group to make it viable, join the group of another candidate, join an uncommitted group or join no group and not be counted.

At the end ot the caucuses, each party tallies up voter preferences at the state level. The Democratic and Republican candidates with the most support are reported to the media as the "winner" of the Iowa Caucus for their party.

People make such a big deal out of the Iowa caucus because, as the first primary contest in the nation, it is the first opportunity to prove a candidate's strength. Also, now that the New Hampshire primary is just 5 days after the Iowa Caucus, a candidate might ride the momentum she/he gets from a win in Iowa to a win in New Hampshire (the other big deal in the presidential primary). If a candidate wins both Iowa and New Hamphire, his/her rivals are expected to have a tough time catching up.

So that's the gist of the Iowa Caucus (just enough to get by at a cocktail party).