DM Register article on the caucuses

[Debi]

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060117/NEWS09/601170346/1056

Good news for Fallon in Des Moines.

<snip>
At Des Moines' Roosevelt High School, for instance, 18-year-old Kaitlyn Wright attended her first caucus to stand up for Fallon.

"I agree with a lot of the things he says," the 18-year-old Roosevelt High School senior said.

Thirty-two of 42 people who showed up in Des Moines' 54th Precinct supported Fallon; the rest were undecided.

Some precincts were more evenly divided, such as Des Moines' 91st Precinct, where a quarter each went for Blouin, Culver, Fallon and "uncommitted."

<snip>

[IA_Seth]

1. Fallon

Wow, Fallon is making great headway with the activist crowd!

If he can begin to turn these gains into momentum with the "regular joes" he could do very well.

I think at this point Fallon has to rely on no one getting enough votes and for this to go to the convention. With as many Fallon supporters showing up at the caucuses as has been reported, things could get verrry interesting.

[iowasocialist]

2. Caucus

At our caucus (DSM Pct. 67), we did not break into
candidate preference groups. Only about three of us
there wanted to break into preference groups.

A motion was made very quickly by a young woman who I
THINK had a Culver button on (I'm not sure), seemingly
to head off any preference group self-selection.

She acted so quickly in making her motion I wondered
if the campaign had briefed her as to what to do,
trying to head off revealing strengths and weaknesses
of the various campaigns.

Did anyone else experience something similar?

[pstans]

3. A Culver supporter wanted to break into preference groups

but when she mentioned it, we had already moved past that and were almost done. We just did a straw poll in our precint. Out of 9 people there 4 were for Culver, 3 undecideds, 1 Blouin, 1 Fallon. Fallon did very well in Des Moines and in Ames. I'd like to know how he did in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City. You'd assume that Fallon would do very weel in Des Moines. To really judge his campaign, you'd need to look at other metro areas.

[Debi]

4. I'm a Culver supporter.

The campaign didn't organize anything to stop the breaking into preference groups, they only encouraged supporters to go Culver if the breaking off occurred and obviously encouraged supporters to run for delegate spots.

It is entirely possible the young woman took it upon herself to try and stop the process. Seems that Fallon had the most organization with regard to preference groups and I am very happy to see that Culver had strong support when the process did occur. Dependant on how many were in attendance you would have needed 15% to agree to break off anyway. Could it be that, after noting only three of you wanted to do it and rather than having a debate on whether or not to break into preference groups, the young woman just wanted to keep things moving along?

I wonder if the Party is going to acknowledge that some precincts did break off into preference groups and what the outcome was. Would be interested to know. :shrug:

For the record, if I didn't already post this, there were two whole people in attendance from my township (me and my husband) and we both went Culver - imagine that :7