Posted on 01/03/2008 9:51:20 PM PST by xjcsa
Several people had asked me to post an after-action report from my experiences tonight, so here it is.
I attended the caucuses in Waterloo, IA, with a few of my friends. Waterloo is in Black Hawk County (pop. 125,000), which was the only "urban" county in Iowa to have all the caucuses at a single location tonight.
We got there early, and it was a good thing. The main parking lot was filling up fast when we got there, and people kept streaming in. Turnout was HUGE. Local media reported turnout at our location of more than 5,000 voters!
We stood in line to get our ballots and info for our precincts, and then everyone who could fit went into the auditorium for the candidate speeches. Only about 800 of us fit in the auditorium (if that); the rest were crammed into the lobby trying to watch on closed-caption TV.
Candidate speeches were scheduled to start at 6pm, but due to the extremely long lines and people still trying to get into the building, they didn't start until 6:30. Even then, they had a US Senate candidate speak, and several others spoke, before the actual candidate speeches.
The auditorium session opened with a prayer, the national anthem, and Pledge of Allegiance.
The first candidate speech was for Mike Huckabee, and it was delivered by...Mike Huckabee, in person. He had apparently been stuck in traffic for 30 minutes trying to get to the school; cars were lined up for something like a mile trying to get in. Crazy. There was clearly a large Huck contingent; he got loud cheers.
The second candidate speech was for Ron Paul. It was delivered by...Ron Paul. Dr. Paul was actually in the lobby when we arrived, shaking hands. Very friendly guy. He gave his usual stump speech; parts got a good response and parts got silence.
The third candidate speech was from some guy from Alabama I've never heard of, but apparently he's running for president (yes, he was the actual candidate). I can't believe they let him speak, and he droned on forever.
The fourth candidate speech was on behalf of Fred Thompson, and it was delivered by Bill Salier (who was Tancredo's state campaign manager). Salier made one heck of a good speech, and kept it short and sweet. Just ripped on Tom "Dung Heap" Harkin as the worst person in Iowa. Great speech, might have changed some minds.
The final candidate speech was on behalf of Mitt Romney, and it was delivered by his wife, Ann Romney. She was classy but not very lively, but it was a good speech.
After some general announcements, the county sheriff's office made some announcements about parking (listed the names of about a dozen people whose cars needed to be moved for safety reasons) and let everyone know they needed to be patient leaving with so many people crammed into the building.
We then adjourned to our precincts, at tables throughout the building (lobby, gym, cafeteria, auditorium, etc.) There were STILL people trying to check in out in the lobby and people trying to get to the building; there was just no parking left and some people were walking nearly a mile from their cars to get there.
By the time we had adjourned to go to our precincts and vote, the night had been called by the media for Huckabee (yes, before we even started voting at the largest location in the state). I used that as an opportunity to peel off Huckster supporters for Fred. Huckabee people tend to despise Romney, so I told them to vote for Fred to try to push him past/close to Romney, and several agreed.
Getting out of there was like leaving a sold-out college football game. Slow traffic, cars lined up for a long distance. But it was a fun night, and a huge turnout, much larger than expected.
908 Huckabee
748 Romney
385 Thompson
283 McCain
274 Paul
61 Giuliani
9 Hunter
These are actual individual votes, although they actually add up to a lot less voters than reported by local media (and it seems low for what I saw, although it's really hard to judge crowd size in the building we were in). This adds up to 2,668 votes, vs. over 5,000 reported by local television. It's also possible that some of the precincts haven't called their results in yet; they all called in separately by precinct even though they were in the same building, and I see that 7% have not yet reported.
Any idea how many of the Huckabee voters were Democrats?
Thanks, good report.
Yes...Florida 2000 all over again, calling the results early. It’s the old trick.
Essentially none. They're die-hard Republicans and evangelical Christians who don't want to hear you talk about Huck's actual positions on anything but abortion and gay marriage. I know a lot of them personally (I'm an evangelical Christian myself), and it's a strange state of mind. I don't understand it at all.
To be fair, we were running *really* late, and Huck's win was larger than our total vote. They may not have even realized that we hadn't voted yet; hard to say, although there was a significant media presence there.
Nice write-up.
Do you have to register in Iowa or is it an open ballot state?
Given that the Dem candidates are pretty much clones, I can’t help but think that a lot of Huckster votes came from Dems voting for the biggest glass jaw Republican candidate they could hope for.
Thanks for answering my post!
You have to register, but you can do so at the caucuses. If you're a registered Donk but you want to vote for Ron Paul, you have to re-register as a Pubbie at the caucus location.
Did the Huckabee voters seem informed on the issues? What seemed to be their reason for supporting him?
What were their impressions of Fred?
These are the folks Fred needs. Just a few of them.
Found it - his name was Hugh Cort, and he would just not shut up.
Thanks for the report, and good work in derailing a couple of the Huckster’s supporters over to the right side (GO FRED!).
I’m a baptist and I can’t understand the admiration of Huckabee outside of the fact he talks about God without shame and about socially conservative issues without apology. Huckabee should provide a lesson for all Republicans and that is social conservatism isn’t something to be ashamed of. Now I will caveat that with the fact that Huckabee talks a socially conservative game but is a light weight when it comes to reality.
They're informed on abortion and gay marriage; they consider everything else kind of secondary until you explain just what a nanny-stater Huckabee is, and they still stay with him, usually. They support him because he's strongly pro-life, and because he's an evangelical like them. It really is identity politics like Rush says; they identify with him and don't care that he's basically a pro-life John Edwards.
What were their impressions of Fred?
Fred is the second choice for most of them; if the caucuses were still a few weeks away Huck would probably lose a fair number of votes to Thompson.
These are the folks Fred needs. Just a few of them.
Yep. I should also note that the Huckabee people tend to despise Romney; they *really* don't like him at all. But they like Thompson.
Thanks for the report. You said Paul spoke there and received a mixed reaction - could you elaborate?
No problem.
It IS a strange state of mind- and worrisome to see.
Thanks for the after action report.
Very positive reaction on Constitutionalism, stony silence on foreign policy and goldbugism (except from his core supporters).
...maybe “goldbuggery” is a better word...
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