Des Moines Precinct 69

I know. I know. I have been a little behind on the blog. I’ve been in transit (moving hotels in Iowa, then moving to New Hampshire while getting a little ill along the way).  So although this blog is three days late, better late than never.

In 2004, 212 people came to the democratic caucus at Des Moines precinct 69. In 2008, that number was 480. While the caucus chair and organizers were expecting a larger turnout, they were unprepared to deal with a 225% increase.  Eventually chairs had to be stacked so more people could fit in the hall at Callanan Middle School. Only elderly people were given sitting privileges while observers, like myself, sat on railings on the side.

Before the actual caucus started, the caucus chair asked for a show of hands of the amount of people who were first time caucus goers. About 45% of the room raised their hands. 15% were new voters. 20% registered to caucus when they arrived. 15% were independents or republicans who switched sides. There was such enthusiasm and excitement throughout the room, but it wasn’t really about any candidate in particular. It was enthusiasm about the democratic process, about Iowa as the first in the nation contest.

With 480 attendees, the magical viability number was 72 – meaning that a candidate had to have the support of 72 people to receive a delegate. Before realignment it was clear who the viable candidates were and who was going to have a difficult time staying alive in Iowa.  There were 11 Kucinich supporters, only 9 for Dodd and even one guy stood in a corner for Gravel.  Biden had 31 people while Richardson had 60. Hillary Clinton had 87 standing in her corner; John Edwards had 82 in his. The real shock was the 193 people on Barack Obama’s side of the room, over twice the number of any other candidate. They weren’t all young college students either. Obama had the largest number of older men and women and a huge majority of the under 40 vote.  The middle age crowd was nicely split between John Edwards and Hillary Clinton.

During realignment, when the non-viable and uncommitted voters are courted by the other campaigns, the majority of Kucinich people as well as the one Gravel guy joined the Obama battalion. According to Obama precinct captain Graham Gillette, the Richardson precinct captain tried to strong-arm him by saying “either you make us viable or we go to Hillary.” Gillette didn’t bite and luckily Richardson was able to court enough Biden, Dodd, and uncommitted people to make viability.

The biggest surprise of the night was that Hillary’s numbers didn’t change after realignment. She had 87 people at the beginning of the night and at the end.  Precinct 70 was meeting down the hall in the school auditorium and there were rumors that she almost didn’t make viability in the first place.

No one had to tell me the results. What was happening at precinct 69 was happening throughout Iowa – Hillary was getting whooped. Perhaps its time she started believing in the audacity of hope.