Iowa Christmas, 2007: Deep Snow And Round-The-Clock Campaigning

By Joe Rothstein
Editor, USPolitics.einnews.com

December 26, 2007

Hallmark would be pleased with the view out of my window in Cedar Rapids, Iowa today. Bright sunlight paints geometric shadows through the leafless trees onto eight inches of new snow. The brilliant blue sky is virtually clear of pollutants, blown away by Christmas eve's 30 mile per hour winds.

It's a picture postcard Christmas day, missing only the horse-drawn sleigh full of carolers.

It's also eight days before the Iowa caucuses. And the campaigning hasn't stopped.

Chris Dodd has events scheduled even this Christmas day. Bill Clinton returns tomorrow for stops in Solon (pop. 1177), Mount Pleasant (pop. 8751) and the day's major event in Muscatine (pop. 22697). John Edwards has four campaign events on his schedule, starting in Waukon (pop. 4132).

Today the Cedar Rapids Gazette published an article about the "frenetic world" of the presidential campaigns, and how they are coping with the holiday's interruption of their activities.

Campaign workers have mostly stayed on the job, celebrating Christmas with their families only because their families have come to Iowa. Obama field worker Orrin Evans has kept right on working in the northeast Iowa city of Elkander. His parents and younger brother joined him there for the holidays and will stay through the January 3 Iowa caucus. Evans has put them to work knocking on doors in nearby St. Olaf and Strawberry Point.

Jill Neunaber hosted her mother, sibling and two grandparents for a short break from her job as a Romney coordinator. They all made the trip from Georgia to join her.

Tomorrow the crush goes into overdrive. Just try getting a seat on a plane or train heading into Iowa. Public transportation and the roads will be crowded with those arriving for the frantic last minute activity. And if you think this is just for sleep-on-the-floor college kids, you misunderestimate the level of intensity felt by political activists throughout the U.S. A former well known federal judge I know told me she plans to be here tomorrow to begin knocking on doors for Obama.

Obama, Biden, Richardson and Edwards all will be in Iowa without a break from now through the caucuses.

Talking with Iowa activists and campaign workers alike you get the distinct impression that no matter what the polls say, the outcome is far from decided. Many Iowans are either still on the fence about their first choice, or, in the case of the Democrats, unsettled about who to turn to as a second choice should their favorite not reach the required 15% support threshold in their caucuses.

Most Iowa newspapers already have weighed in with their endorsements. The big ones, from the Des Moines Register, went to Clinton and McCain. There's been no apparent surge to Clinton because of that endorsement, but Republican activists here believe McCain seems to have gained some momentum from it.

Obama may have missed out on the Des Moines Register's endorsement, but he's grabbed more endorsements from other papers than any candidate, Republican or Democrat. Four dailies and three weeklies have endorsed Obama, compared with three dailies and one weekly for Clinton. Surprisingly, after four years of intense effort in Iowa, Edwards has the endorsement of only the Shenandoah Valley News. Biden's been endorsed by two weeklies. No paper has endorsed either Dodd or Richardson.

On the Republican side, McCain's been endorsed by four dailies and one weekly paper. Huckabee's the choice of two dailies and four weeklies. Only the Sioux City Journal has endorsed Romney. No paper has endorsed Giuliani or Paul. The endorsements are at odds with what most observers here think has rendered down to a two candidate match-up: Romney and Huckabee.

Iowa's Christmas day newspapers are filled with stories of heart-warming events, inspiring Christmas tales from Iowa communities and stories of fatalities, car wrecks and snow cleanup from the heavy weekend wind-driven snow fall. You couldn't tell from the last few days' of news here that Iowa is about to make a critical decision that may result in the election of the nation's next president.

And that highlights the huge chasm between the nation's interest in the Iowa caucuses and the local interest. For all the tens of millions of dollars being spent here, and for all the thousands of earnest volunteers and paid field workers, and for all the time being spent by some of the nation's foremost political leaders, fewer than 10% of eligible Iowans will actually attend the caucuses.

Historically, Iowa caucus turnout is about 6%, but there's never been such an open race on both sides of the ballot and much larger turnouts are expected January 3 than in the past.

As few as 40,000 votes could propel next week's winners into the White House. No wonder campaign field workers have enlisted their families to knock on doors and Bill Clinton starts his day Thursday visiting Solon, population 1177.

Christmas or not, every door, every day, every minute and every vote counts.

Joe Rothstein, editor of US Politics Today, is a former daily newspaper editor and long-time national political strategist based in Washington, D.C.

See all previous articles by Joe Rothstein here.