Question about the caucus process —
I had heard that in 2008, the Obama people in Iowa were extremely aggressive and immovable during caucus discussions. They did well in Iowa that year by basically being jerks. I don’t know enough about how a caucus works, so I don’t know if this story is true — I don’t know if the strategy would be successful.
But if that is a viable approach to a caucus, then 2016 will be interesting, because I think the Trump and the Cruz contingents are both willing to be jerks.
And I wonder is being an aggressive, unreasonable and immovable jerk will perhaps backfire in a 2016 caucus. A lot of folks are tired of that behavior.
FIND YOUR CAUCUS
DONALD J. TRUMP FOR PRESIDENT
Iowa Caucus Finder
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Caucus is pretty much like voter turnout, although there is opportunity to persuade people before they cast a ballot. Jerks just sty with their candidate, immune to persuasion. Obama saw to it he had better turnout, and saw to it his supporters were unreasonably loyal.
The Republican Caucus holds a secret ballot. The Democrat Caucus makes people stand at posts or corners for their candidate. Caucusgoers could easily be subject to jerkiness/harassment/obnoxiousness as people are called out to join the group with the most viable candidate.
Don’t take all I’m saying as gospel as I’m not that up on the system but my understanding.
Remember the gop and democrat are two different events.
There are some 1861 precincts covering the 99 counties. The locals gather at their precinct
at 7pm local time and begin the process. They can voice support for their candidate or not
and finally a vote is taken. I’m not sure if this is winner take all or proportional. After
the precinct level the process moves to the county level and begins anew. After that one they
move the congressional district level for the next process. Then comes the final selection at
the state level shortly before the GOP Convention in mid year.
So how does that work exactly? Let's say you are a Trump supporter showing up to caucus and the Cruz people are "being aggressive and immovable". What's to stop you from ignoring them and walking over to stand in the Trump circle?
Republican caucus is different from Democratic caucus. Democrats go in and are supposed to fight each other to the death with knives to determine who will vote for who. Republican caucus, a guy gives a speech and you have to be present as they count the votes.
I have no clue what you mean. I’ve asked for someone form Iowa to tell us how these caucuses work, and I hear nothing.
What is it? People come, go to their corner then vote? Or do they talk and argue for three hours?
I’m going to post something on this later today, but apparently the republican caucus is VASTLY different than the democratic one. The republican caucus is like a PTA meeting starting at 7pm. People, including the candidate, get up and speak about their candidate. THen they vote usually with a secret ballot. I’m told in some precincts it can be show of hands.
The democrats have a more complex process where by it sounds like you can manhandle the outcome. I think there are a set number of votes that can be cast. I don’t know, but they are different and the Obama ploy you’re talking about doesn’t work with the republican caucus. Which is good.