Colleen Delahanty
Iowa Memorial Union,
Iowa City, Iowa.
7pm
College Students Pack the Iowa Memorial Union in Iowa City
The night begins with our caucus
leader directing all of the participants to the front of the room and all of the
observers to the back of the room. All of the 200 or so chairs are
filled and there are a good number of observers. The leader gives
a short speech about the night’s events and instructions. After
that, the leader then “passes the hat” to collect donations for the Democratic
party of Johnson county. Unfortunately, the majority of people in
this room are young college students, with little cash to spare.
Next, the floor opens for nominations to elect the officers for the
night. This is a very casual process, and there is no dispute over
the elected leaders.
It is up to the chair to decide
whether or not to allow time for the candidate leaders to speak about their
candidates. This was allowed, so each candidate leader spoke for a
minute or two about why their candidate is the best. Most told
personal stories. The precinct captain for Barrack Obama received
significantly more applause than the others. After figuring the
number of people caucusing in the room, it was determined that the magic number
was 32 to make a candidate viable. We are getting ready to break
out into our support groups now so we will see who is viable and who is not.
_____________________________________________________
Stacy Wilson
Precinct 45
Drake
University
Caucus night started early, with
many people showing up at 6 or before to register or to check in.
After registering myself, I ran into media from my home state that drove
all the way from Milwaukee Wisconsin to cover the caucus—college students from
Marquette. After discovering a common friend and answering some
interview questions, it was time to go into the lecture hall. Olin
Hall’s lecture hall was close to capacity as our Caucus Chair was forced to kick
the media out of seats so everyone could sit.
The lecture hall was full of
democratic candidates supporters, complete with posters for each
candidates. The Chair worked to keep the mood light by cracking
jokes. Laughter came quickly and easily and the mood was energetic and full of
excitement.
After taking care of some
administrative tasks, we moved on to reading letters from different Iowa
Politicians, thanking Iowans taking the time to caucus, then from any candidate
who submitted a letter. Candidates who submitted letters included;
Bidden, Clinton, Dodd, Edwards, Gravel, Obama and
Richardson.
Precinct 45 had a similar number of
people in 2004. The secretary of the caucus was very impressed at
the number of students that turned out, despite the fact school was not in
session.
Students heavily favored Obama with
74 people starting in the group (not including the undecided) of 176 people at
the caucus. A candidate needs 27 people to be considered
viable. Edwards seemed to have the second most people. Richardson
and Clinton had similar numbers.
_______________________________________________________
Alex Rajewski
Drake University (2010) Biochemistry
I just drove for 5 hours to caucus. I have no idea what to expect and no idea
what is going to happen next, but it’s so cool to see other people my age that
are excited to vote and actually care about choosing the president.
________________________________________________________
Nicholas McGahan
Drake University (2010) Political Science
I don’t care who the multitude of young people are here to caucus for, but just
the fact that they are here to caucus gives me hope and fills me with a sense of
pride for my generation.
________________________________________________________
Kalee Portz
Drake University
I think it’s really important to be here at the caucus. We have a
privilege to live in Iowa, where each voter can really make a difference early
in the electoral process. It’s a very exciting event, and I am
really thankful to be part of it.
_______________________________________________________
Laura Brill
Drake University
Growing up in Illinois, I didn’t really understand the impact that Iowa voters
could have on the Presidential election. I feel very fortunate to be able to be
involved in the race at the caucus level. It is great to be part of such an
integral process in this important election.
________________________________________________________
Emily Carruthers
Drake University
This is the first presidential election that I’ve been able to be involved in
and I’m really glad that I’m in Iowa to experience the caucuses.
There has been so much excitement in the past few weeks over the Iowa
caucuses and it’s amazing to be here and get to be a part of it.
