Obama, Clinton Seek to Demystify Iowa Caucus for Newcomers

Two of the nation’s Democratic presidential front-runners are not only hoping caucus night 2004 won’t repeat itself, they are taking steps to ensure it won’t. New caucus-goers — individuals of all ages who are most apt to be intimidated by the often lengthy and highly-charged Iowa caucuses — are going to have many opportunities to test-drive mock events and, in some cases, will be provided mentors.

“We travel all over the nation,” said Kim Reynolds, who caucused in Polk County in 2004. “People right after the Iowa decision were angry. They all thought Howard Dean was going to win and were really upset with Iowa when he didn’t do well here. I know that in my caucus — and I’ve heard from other people the same — the Dean supporters weren’t prepared. They didn’t understand how to bring more supporters to their group, to make it viable. They just got up and left after the first round.”

The Obama campaign released a list of 73 people it dubbed “Caucus Pros” who will work with new caucus attendees. The Clinton campaign has produced a video that will be first shown to supporters tonight at a debate watch party in Des Moines at the Varsity Theater.

“We are now 50 days away from caucus night and we are kicking it into high gear to go into our get-out-the-caucus effort,” said Mark Daley, communications director for Iowans for Hillary, on a conference call Wednesday.

Just minutes before the Clinton conference call began, Obama campaign staffers issued a press release in which their candidate was quoted as saying, “The way to build a strong, grass-roots organization that will be effective on caucus night is to have seniors and veteran caucus-goers train first-time caucus-goers about how the process works.”

Staff from both campaigns have indicated that they see their strength in the upcoming Iowa caucuses not necessarily with party regulars, but with first-time attendees.

“A majority of our identified supporters would be first-time caucus-goers,” said Dave Barnhart, Clinton’s caucus director, on the conference call.

Daley added that although his campaign doesn’t want to show its “cards” to rivals, it should come as little surprise, given the number of first-time attendees in 2004, that the Clinton campaign is finding support with people who have never attended a caucus.

“In 2004, I believe the exit polls said that 50 or 45 percent of caucus-goers were first-time attendees,” he said. “I think we’re seeing an awful lot of likely first-time attendees who are going to show up on Jan. 3. Our goal, of course, is to make sure they actually do and that they are there for our candidate.”

First-time caucus attendees, said Obama communications director Josh Earnest in a phone call today, aren’t only young people or college students.

“Much has been made of our outreach to first-time caucus-goers who are young people, but the fact is that there are Iowans of all ages who have not participated in a caucus before — and who want to do so to support Sen. Obama this time,” he said. “We want to make sure that all of them have the information they need to participate in the process.”

The people named as “Caucus Pros” will be integrated into the Obama campaign’s existing training process that includes mock caucuses and other small-to-medium group learning.

“We are asking these folks — who have extensive experience with the caucus process — to come and help lead those trainings, to participate in the caucus process and to talk about their own experiences,” Earnest said. “Frankly, they talk about what a special opportunity it is to have such a significant say as to who the next president of the United States is going to be.”

The Clinton video, which combines humor with basic caucus information, proclaims other activities might be hard, but “caucusing is easy.” The campaign plans to use the video in group settings and one-on-one meetings with newcomers.

“I like the video and the way it uses humor to make it’s message,” said Kay Hale, a two-time caucus attendee in Linn County. “I think, however, it might be disingenuous to say that caucusing only takes an hour and that you’ll be home in time for your favorite television programs. When you are to show up at 6:30 at night and the doors don’t even close until 7… that’s 30 minutes right there.”

The length of a caucus can be attributed to a lot of variables, said Carrie Giddins, communications director for the Iowa Democratic Party.

“If you’re in a caucus where you are awarding one delegate — those smaller population areas — you’re not really going to have a realignment period,” she said. “In those cases you are probably going to be done by 7:30 or 7:45 p.m. But, in those larger precincts, where you have a lot of people and you have to get them all signed in and determine viability and then have two 30-minute realignment periods, then do the counting… We are expecting most of our numbers to come in after 8:30 p.m.”

Once numbers from the precincts throughout Iowa are turned in to the state party, however, the process isn’t completely over. Business such as electing individuals to serve on county central committees, electing delegates and alternates to county conventions, and forming committees to help plan county conventions all typically takes place after the presidential preference groups are complete.