With delegates up for grabs, unlikely alliances the rule
Originally published in the Boston Globe
BUILDING BLOCS
With delegates up for grabs, unlikely alliances the rule
By Rick Klein, Globe Staff, 1/20/2004
DES MOINES -- Suddenly, the eclectic band of students and middle-aged liberals who came out for Representative Dennis J. Kucinich were the most popular people in the room.
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Only 17 of them had shown up last night in the library of Theodore Roosevelt High School, leaving them four votes short of the 15 percent threshold they needed to secure a delegate in Precinct 55. They had three choices: be recorded as uncommitted, throw their support to another candidate, or win at least four converts.
A supporter of Senator John F. Kerry asked them to think broadly about issues, and come to Kerry's side. Senator John Edwards's supporters urged them to honor an agreement between Edwards and Kucinich that Kucinich backers would join Edwards if they did not have enough support in a particular precinct.
The Howard Dean camp pleaded with the Kucinich supporters to unite in an antiwar bloc. Dean's precinct captain even offered one the chance to attend the county convention as a Dean delegate. But the Kucinich group was unmoved, and argued loudly for their candidate as the caucus devolved into overlapping conversations and arguments.
Then, sensing his initial entreaty was a nonstarter, Edwards's precinct captain, Tim Ingram, moved instead against Dean: He offered the Kucinich backers the support they needed to win a delegate. A supporter of Representative Richard A. Gephardt -- who drew only 10 supporters in the precinct -- quickly offered his people for the same purposes.
In the end, enough Gephardt supporters joined the Kucinich camp to give Kucinich a delegate. By keeping the Kucinich backers from joining Dean, the Gephardt folks probably cost Dean a delegate to the county Democratic convention. The former Vermont governor ended up with two delegates in the precinct, with one each going to Kerry, Edwards, and Kucinich.
The Iowa caucuses held last night at 1,993 sites across the state were chaotic contests that pitted neighbor versus neighbor. They included passionate pleas for candidates, quick alliances that no one could have predicted, and a fair share of hurt feelings.
But the meetings were also remarkable displays of an odd brand of democracy in action, leaving even caucus veterans shrugging about the process. "It's like what you think of as happening in the old town meetings in New England," said Harvey Martens, a 75-year-old retired administrator at Drake University who has been attending caucuses in Precinct 55 since 1980.
Not everyone was so enamored of the process. Several Kerry supporters said that it was impossible to follow and that no one seemed to have a firm grasp on the mathematical rules. Dean supporters grumbled afterward that rival candidates, threatened by Dean's candidacy of insurgency, conspired against him.
"Dean has a lot of momentum, and that makes a lot of people nervous," said Tyler Uetz, a 27-year-old who won one of the two Dean delegate slots in Precinct 55. "They could smell blood."
In this working class neighborhood that is among Iowa's most diverse, 136 Democrats showed up -- about 30 percent more than the precinct's turnout of four years ago. By the scheduled start time of 6:30, the chairs were all taken, and caucusgoers were leaning against walls and bookshelves.
A flustered precinct chairman struggled to maintain order as the registration line snaked out the door, and the precinct ran out of forms to register new voters. When it was time to get started, organizers had lost count of how many people were in the room, and they had everyone count off to get a total.
When caucusgoers divided into preference groups, it quickly became obvious that Gephardt lacked the necessary support. They then decided to go to Kucinich to keep any of Gephardt's main rivals -- Dean, Kerry, and Edwards -- from picking up support.
The Kucinich supporters left elated, cherishing the opportunity to carry their candidate's banner to the county convention in March.
"Everyone swooped in and assumed we would automatically give in," said Clementine Karl, a Drake student who was named the Kucinich delegate. "We didn't budge, and it gives us the opportunity to really discuss policies some more."
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