I got involved a couple months ago with Bill Richardson's campaign, and even did a 2-minute introductory speech for him at one of his local appearances, as well as being a precinct captain for the caucuses last night. (Edit: for those who might not know, the precinct captain is not an outside "pro," but has to be a local volunteer, living in that precinct. The campaigns can, and often do, have some of their "pros" at the caucus to observe and assist, but they are not allowed to participate in any obvious way, most especially not to get involved with the wheeling and dealing of the evening. We had a Clinton "pro" on hand who scrupulously followed these rules. No other "outsiders" were present except for an Oriental exchange student who was observing, and one newspaper reporter.)
Our precinct, the smallest in our city, selected three delegates. All along, I considered it a long shot to win one. But going into the caucus, I felt confident; from phone calls and canvassing I thought that we were roughly equal with Edwards, and could squeeze him out for the third delegate.
The Obama precinct captain was all smiles as I introduced myself to him while we were setting up. I had modest hope that they might help us out with a few people to become viable, having heard rumors of some sort of “deal†that the two campaigns would help each other out (more on that shortly). He had other ideas than helping us, as it transpired.
I am friends with the Biden captain, who had worked very hard and developed a following for her candidate from almost nothing. I had hopes that perhaps we could work together in some way. The Edwards people had no precinct captain, to my surprise, and were rather dejected, with a hand-lettered “Edwards†sign on some notebook paper as their only identifying mark. I had some friends among them, too.
The Clinton people, mostly female, were highly efficient, by far the most organized of the groups. I had arrived an hour early to grab a good “corner†with plenty of visibility in the room; they were already there, all set up with signs outside in the snow and inside the room, energetic people in Clinton blue shirts checking their supporters in on their lists as they arrived and greeting everyone at the door. I jumped in and helped with this task so that Richardson would have some visibility. The county Democratic party's website had been wrong (no surprise) and people from two other precincts were showing up; we directed them to the proper place, fortunately just two blocks away. We helped the people who needed to register to vote, or change their party – even though, as it turned out, most of these were for Obama. Many of them arrived with pre-printed voter registration forms, all filled out except for the signature and I presume put in their hands by Obama canvassers; in all, these probably amounted to a score of people – nearly half of the Obama support.
As people arrived, I noted that we were running pretty much even with Edwards, though Biden was about even with us as well. But people kept streaming over to the Obama corner....
All told, we had 118 people, a strong turnout for our little precinct: 20 needed for viability and the chance of getting a delegate. We had eleven. Edwards had 15, Biden 11, Dodd 4. Clinton had 28, and the Obama people dominated the room with 49.
I tried to get some cooperation from the Obama camp; no dice, even though they could have easily spared the nine people we needed for viability, and I knew from canvassing that several of them had identified Richardson as their second choice. I called on them by name; no dice. Instead, some in the group heckled me and tried to get us all to come their way, so that there would be only two viable groups and they would get two of the three delegates. Their captain took me aside and said “We can slam-dunk the Edwards campaign and put him out of the race tonight with an Obama landslide. You are wasting your vote if you don't join us. And what about the deal? Your Gov. Richardson told all of his supporters to come to us.†I knew of no such deal other than having heard a rumor, and the rumor had them helping us just as much as us helping them. And I learned this morning that Richardson had, in fact, told his supporters to follow their own consciences if he proved non-viable and they had to go with a second choice. I would have walked out of the room and gone home before helping the Obama people at that point, especially after the way they had been heckling me.
I tried the four Dodd people; they were leaning more toward Biden than Richardson. I talked to my friend the Biden captain. They were now ahead of us, so she wasn't budging, suggesting that we all come over to their side. The Edwards people were trying to get us, trying very hard to get someone, anyone, to join them. To their credit, without any precinct captain and without anyone in their camp that was willing to speak up or take a lead, they did their best and gave it a good try.
In the end, the four groups that were non-viable (Richardson, Edwards, Biden, Dodd) all combined into an “uncommitted†group for the third delegate. As I told the group, “None of us are happy with this, but it is the best we can do.†I thought that if Richardson were showing lots of strength elsewhere in the state, keeping the Edwards group from winning that delegate was better than nothing. Keeping the Obama group from walking out with two out of three delegates was much better than nothing.
I am surprised at how small the support was for Senator Clinton, and I was very surprised that the Edwards campaign couldn't even field a precinct captain. And I was not expecting the level of Obama support that was in the room, nor the arrogance they displayed.
When I went downtown afterwards to the local Richardson field office and saw the numbers on the wall chart, and how few Richardson delegates we had, and saw the statewide numbers, it was discouraging. A distant fourth place, and we had needed third, or at least a strong fourth. The Obama people were outside their headquarters (in the same building), celebrating in the street. Clinton people (likewise in the same building) were coming and going quietly: no celebration there.
I think Edwards is in huge trouble, unless he can pull a miracle in New Hampshire on Tuesday. Clinton faces a tough fight, too, though she is by no means out of it. Yet, with a year of hard work, strong organization, and vast sums of money in Iowa, it is a bad sign that she couldn't do better than she did.
On the Republican side: Huckabee by a large margin. If anyone could be worse than Bush, he's the man.
I fear for our nation.