Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
It’s 6:30 p.m. and people are continuing the file in the door of the gymnasium at Vernon Middle School in Marion. It’s difficult to say how many are here tonight as more than one precinct is sharing the area.
This Marion precinct, my home precinct, encompasses downtown and is primarily a blue collar area. While it has more Democratic voters than Republican, our most populous voting block is those who have selected no party (independents). It is these individuals who have been courted heavily by candidates on both side of the aisle, and who will probably make the evening more interesting.
Additional observations and happenings located below the fold…
6:38 p.m. — I’d estimate that there are 300 people in the room right now (but we still can’t tell who is in what precinct). There are large groups gathering for Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, former North Carolina John Edwards and New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Right now everyone is in what I can only describe as “clumps” of people. There are chairs, but there will not be enough. The bleachers have been pulled out from the wall too and, for now at least, they appear to be sparsely populated.
An Obama supporter is standing at the main entry and asking everyone who comes in if they are “fired up.” A few people, walking in from below zero wind chills, have given her a rather odd look, obviously unaware of the campaign slogan.
6:51 p.m. — Nine minutes before the doors close and we’ve had our first sighting of a supporter for Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich. All the candidates — Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, in addition to those already named — now all have at least some supporters at the caucus.
6:57 p.m. — Three minutes before the doors close and we are up to what I’ll esimate to be about 400 people. Right now, it appears that Edwards has the largest “clump” of support, but I still have no way of knowing if they are in my precinct or a part of the other Marion precinct that is sharing the gymnasium.
Clinton’s supporters have glow in the dark bracelets. And… wow… it appears that we have five Kucinich supporters standing in the middle of the gym floor. I honestly was not expecting to see any here in Marion, which runs a bit conservative even on the Democratic side.
7:01 p.m. — Well, it’s one minute after closing time by my clock, but no one seems to be moving to close the doors or limit anyone else getting in line. (Right now there is no one in line.)
7:03 p.m. — No one has yet made a move to get things underway although the caucus-goers are quieting down and getting a little antsy.
Here we go, local residents Jeri Thomas and Mike Warner are bringing the caucus to order. It is extremely difficult to hear anything because there is no microphone. Thomas is now going through the process of nominations for permanent caucus chair. No surprises here, Thomas and Warner are both approved for continued service.
Thomas and Warner continue to work their way through the necessary party business associated with the caucus (i.e., nomination papers for the various local, state and federal candidates).
7:13 p.m. — There seems to be a bit of organized chaos around the room as the chairs work to get an accurate headcount of those in the room. I was just told that we have 158 people in our precinct. That means, in order to viable, a candidate needs 24 people standing for them. It looks as if the entire field of lower-polling candidates is about to drop.
More chaos at the moment as the precinct on the other side of the gym begins to count off by person… 1, 2, 3, 4…
7:27 p.m. — Unofficial results *before* the first realignment period are as follows:
The wheeling and dealing is now underway. We are being heavily courted by the Edwards people. They now need 9 more people to garner a second delegate.
The Kucinich folks nearly immediately packed up and went to Obama. The people for Biden have now split between Edwards and Obama. I’m not seeing much second choice movement toward the Clinton campaign.
7:36 p.m. Decisions, decisions, decisions. People are still talking and still making deals. I hear the local Biden guy was promised he could be a delegate to the county convention if he went with the Edwards group. Not a bad deal, except for the fact that I’ve never heard of any county convention alternate delegates being turned away.
The Richardson people just split between Edwards and Obama campaigns — to much applause from both.
It looks as if most people have settled into their new seats — my husband and I being some of the last few to decide what we were going to do. I’m going to go check to see if there are new alignment numbers that can be reported.
7:52 p.m. — It looks as if the Edwards campaign is going to come up four short of its goal for for achieving two delegates. The Obama campaign has 12 more than they need to achieve their maximum number of delegates, but they are refusing to release any supporters to go sit with Edwards — and quickly talk those who get up and head that way out of going.
The caucus officials and precinct people for the Clinton campaign are currently re-counting her supporters. There isn’t much celebration in that part of the room, although I’m not sure if they are trying to be quiet to be counted or if it is because they aren’t liking the numbers.
7:55 p.m. — At this moment, there are a lot of children running around the gymnasium, and the caucus officials continue to count. This is what might be one of the most boring aspects of caucusing — the big wait.
In what is beginning to become more than a little annoying, the Obama supporters on the other side of the gym (in the other precinct) are chanting on and off. If there is one thing I won’t miss in the coming months it is the “Fired up, Ready to Go” chant.
8:00 p.m. — It’s interesting to watch the play between the Edwards and Obama groups. Edwards picked off at least one of the Kucinich supporters that had orginally went to sit with Obama. The Obama precinct leaders were following and talking the whole time he walked off.
While it is clear that the Obama campaign has organized better than the Dean campaign of 2004, it has also became clear that they have not paid much attention to caucus strategy. As it stands now, they could send four supporters to sit with the John Edwards group without any harm to their own delegate count, and, by doing so, would have a high likelihood of knocking a delegate from Clinton.
Since it isn’t John Edwards that is polling so close to Barak Obama in New Hampshire, it would make sense for the Obama team to release the four people to sit with Edwards and help him pull a delagate away from their strongest competitor in the next contest.
8:07 p.m. — We continue to await the results after the alignment period. It’s time to count since no one else in the room appears to be moving.
The Obama people in the gym received news from somewhere (a radio report?) that Obama is leading in the state. The chanting has begun yet again.
8:14 p.m. — Here are the delegate and people counts out of the precinct:
In 2004, this precinct went the same way as the state as a whole, ushering Sen. John Kerry first and Edwards second. It will be interesting to see how well we fare when compared with the rest of the state later tonight.
While most people are now leaving the caucus, the event is hardly over. There are still people to be elected to the county party, resolutions and other assorted business to be handled. Despite that, however, the national show has come to a close here in Marion and I’ll be signing off. Thanks for caucusing with me tonight.
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