Democrats, Republicans reflect on presidential caucuses held locally

The Monday, February 1 Iowa caucuses brought an end to the recent deluge of political rhetoric in the local area but also kicked off an even more focused race in each party toward the next finish line at the June primary election. Local caucus-goers had the opportunity to provide their input on the early tale-telling of this fully-involved political season, but results of those caucuses in Allamakee County didn't necessarily reflect the same results experienced on a statewide basis.
While Texas Senator Ted Cruz finished ahead of typical polling front-runner Donald Trump, 27.6% to 24.3%, for the top two spots in the statewide results, those results were reversed and a bit closer in Allamakee County, where Trump held an edge of 28.1% to 26.7%. Rounding out the Allamakee County results, in order, were Marco Rubio, Dr. Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina, with none of the other six Republican candidates registering measurable results in Iowa doing so in Allamakee County. Statewide results also had Rubio and Carson in that same order of finish as the local results, with Fiorina dropping to seventh statewide behind Rand Paul and Jeb Bush.
The Democrat side of the caucus was a near mirror image as the final statewide results, as Hillary Clinton edged Bernie Sanders by a small percentage. Clinton garnered 49.8% of the statewide approval, with Sanders right on her heels at 49.6% and now-departed candidate Martin O’Malley finishing with 0.5%. Clinton’s slight edge in Allamakee County grew to a 50.7% to 49.3% margin, with O’Malley not registering enough to be listed in the final local results. Sanders actually won more precincts, 5-4, than Clinton in Allamakee County, but several of Clinton’s won precincts held more population, and the two actually finished even, percentage-wise, in two of the 11 precincts.

LOCAL PERSPECTIVES
No matter what the final numbers indicate for results, the overall result for those who organized and headlined this year’s caucus events was a feeling of success and accomplishment, as local leaders from both parties recorded a substantial increase in attendance, including first-time caucus goers, and indicate this year’s event was one of the best ever for attendance.
“The Democratic caucuses in Allamakee County mirrored what we saw in statewide results,” shared Katie and Dan Hanson of Lansing, co-chairs of the Allamakee County Democrats. “A total of 470 people attended their precinct caucuses in our county, the second largest turn-out ever; 2008 was the highest turn-out. Like in the rest of the state, most of our precincts had a relatively large number of new voters - people registering for the first time, many of them young voters, and people registering as Democrats for the first time. Clearly, this was one reason for our great turn-out: we had 130 new voters registered, either registering for the first time or changing to Democrat. We have all marveled at the surge of supporters, both young and old, that Bernie Sanders has gathered, and I think that contributed to the number of our new voters. Hillary Clinton had great support, too - more from "long-time" Democrats, and her dedicated supporters were out in force, though I kind of hesitate to make these generalizations.”
Likewise, local Republican leaders, Allamakee County Republican co-chair Bob Hager and his wife, Kristi, also reported an overall increase in attendance with a wide range of degrees per caucus. “We compared 2012 to 2016 caucus goers and saw a net increase anywhere from 12% (Precinct 5 - Waterville, Linton, Paint Creek) to 164% (Waukon 1),” they explained. “You could feel the energy that night. The only precinct with a net loss, down 23%, was Precinct 7 (Lansing, Center, Lafayette, Lansing City). Not sure if that was fog-related, or what. It was an exciting evening and encouraging to see so many first-timers.”
Observations from individual precincts certainly reflected the overall feel of local party leaders. Mark Kerndt, who was instrumental in headlining the Republican caucus events for precinct locations for the city of Waukon and immediate surrounding area, shared the following observations from both a local and overall perspective.
“Republicans in the city of Waukon (Precincts 9,10 and 11) and in the surrounding rural townships (Precinct 2) reported to the Waukon High School auditorium,” he said. “There was a large increase over the 2012 caucus with many new first-time caucus goers. We were prepared, though, for a large turn-out and had plenty of capable volunteers to allow things to operate smoothly. We registered many new people to the Republican Party. I was surprised to see Donald Trump win Allamakee County as he was the only candidate from the top tier that did not visit the Waukon, Lansing, Postville or Decorah areas. Statewide, the Iowa way of campaigning around the whole state and organizing in every county paid off for Ted Cruz as he garnered a record amount of votes in winning Iowa. After being ahead in the polls for nearly seven months, Trump’s decision to skip the final debate in front of Iowa voters likely cost him, as he not only lost to Cruz but barely stayed ahead of Marco Rubio, who almost doubled his poll numbers from a month ago. Caucus night was a win for Iowa Republicans with the large turn-out and enthusiasm. The state party had everyone prepared and results were tabulated quickly and easily with the new reporting software. Iowa Republicans didn’t listen to the national pundits and their polls, but made their own decision on who they want as president.”
The Hanson co-chair pair for the local Democratic party echoed those same thoughts that preparation and training were a key to the evening running so smoothly at the local level. “This year, the Iowa Democratic Party devoted a lot of time and resources to providing caucus chairs with extensive training and materials to make the caucuses successful,” they reasoned. “We had a dedicated group of caucus leaders and volunteers who learned a variety of important things, like welcoming and registering new voters, how to do caucus math and encouraging discussion among attendees, along with electing delegates and planning the county convention. On caucus night, I think we saw the value in the training and having staff available to us for questions: we did not receive one "HELP" call, and all our results were reported accurately, using the new reporting system that Microsoft developed with the two state parties.”
As interesting as the final results and overall feeling of a successful night of caucusing are the observations made in regard to discussions and points of interest debated during the local caucus process, not only for the presidential candidates but also for what each party felt were the most important issues to move forward with. Although some of the Allamakee County precincts may have been smaller in population size, that in no way meant that the discussion that took place lacked in passion or luster.
"I don't think I am an indecisive person, but when I began to engage in the process at the Democratic caucus in New Albin, I realized I was philosophically conflicted between the two leading candidates' views and political priorities,” shared George Blair, a precinct caucus chair and member of the Allamakee County Democratic Central Committee. “I encountered intelligent, articulate, thoughtful members of the community with strong, heart-felt convictions. We discussed conflicting dichotomies like hope vs. fear, head vs. the heart, pragmatic realism vs. idealism, incremental change vs. starting over with health care, the impending turnover of the Supreme Court, the threat of privatization to Social Security inequality of wealth, Social Democracy vs. government control and other very important decisions before the electorate. Though people had differing views, this debate was conducted in a reasonable and respectful way. Democracy was working in a manner that made me feel proud to be a part of it. One example of differing expressed views came from a young woman who had served two tours in Afghanistan and was suffering from PTSD. I was trying to express my fear that if Bernie became our candidate, with ‘Socialism’ attached to his name, he would not make it in the general election. She said, ‘I know something about reality - vote for hope, not fear.’ I got choked up as my argument fell away. I began to think, maybe there is hope for this country yet."
The Republican side carried an equal amount of passion in its process, as Lowell Engle, precinct chairman in Harpers Ferry, indicated. “We had the largest turn-out in many years,” he said. “The most interesting portion of the meeting was during discussion for the ‘Plank for the Platform’ portion of the caucus. There was overwhelming support to have the ‘Cadillac’ retirement and medical plan that accrues to all elected officials (Congressmen and Senators) abolished. They would be required to go on to ‘Obama Care’ and not be exempted. There was also a demand to have the retirement system, which Congress voted for itself, abolished and have all elected officials rely on Social Security and their own private retirement plan. There was also heavy support for establishing term limits for both senators (two terms) and congressmen (six terms). Another popular subject was to require mandatory auditing of the Federal Reserve. The whole tenor of the meeting carried an overtone of distrust for both houses of Congress as well as the Supreme Court. That probably explained why Trump did so well in the caucus. It's nice to see democracy at work!”
The Hanson co-chairs noted that the passion and points of discussion didn’t just take place between candidate and issue backers from different walks of life, but sometimes also happened within families and from all ranges of age groups, heightening the value of the democratic election process within this country. “We had young people who are just turning 18 and enthusiastic about voting for the first time, all the way to our life-long Democrats in their 90s,” the Hansons first noted. “Pat Kerndt, 92, lives at Thornton Manor and came to the caucus in Lansing in her wheelchair, accompanied by her daughter. Most people who came knew whom they would caucus for, although there were a few undecided folks, who then had the opportunity to hear from supporters of the candidates. Sometimes the discussions got a little heated - remember, these people are passionate - but I think everyone felt the discussions and process of forming preference groups was worthwhile. There was a lot of energy and enthusiasm and I think people had fun, too. One thing that was observed - at some of the precincts, several members of a family attended, and quite often their preferences were split. We saw people in the Bernie preference group, who might have spouses or children or siblings in the Hillary camp, and vice versa. So it would be interesting to be a fly on the wall at their dinner tables!”
One aspect that contributed to the overall success of the caucus evening at the local level was noted by another Democratic precinct chair: “I felt like we all shared a mutual respect for each other and didn't get into any infighting that might have caused the meeting to go in a negative direction. For the most part, people knew the Democratic candidate they wanted to support and did so without being disrespectful to those who supported the other candidate. It is always amazing to watch grassroots politics in action at the Iowa Democratic Caucuses."
As with any type of event involving such a wide variety and number of people, some concerns were noted, although none that offered any sort of negative reflection on the local caucus effort. “I thought we would have 20 more from the town come that did come, but we had some new folks there; maybe 10 to 15% more,” reflected David Koopman, secretary for the Postville caucus location for Republicans. “I was shocked that only one proposed plank came out of our caucus.”
Cindy Berns, who helped headline the Post/Franklin Township Republican caucus location in Postville, shared further insight: “We signed in 45 individuals, and six new people registered. We heard many people say they had never been to a caucus, so that is why I believe that there weren't many delegates and platforms. Most of the people wanted to vote. They didn't know or understand about the rest. The Jewish gentlemen asked many questions in the lobby afterwards.”
The Hanson Democratic co-chairs also shared one final point in regard to the situation created with just two leading candidates within the Democratic party. “In case you're interested in the attention being given to the coin-toss situation a few precincts faced statewide; some of the comments in the media make it sound like this is ‘rinky-dink’ and there should be some sort of more sophisticated way to break a tie,” they offered in explanation. “We can only say that these are caucuses, not elections, run by the individual parties, and each party has its own rules on selecting delegates. We did not face any ties like this in Allamakee County, but if we had, the rule to break the tie is a coin-toss, and that is part of the training. A tie would occur if a precinct had an odd number of delegates to elect (say, five) and there were equal numbers of people in each preference group. We know that each of the two preference groups would get two delegates, but how to award the fifth? It's a coin toss, and it looks like that happened in a few of the 1600-plus precincts.”