opinion

The national media won't be there, but Iowans should caucus anyway

The Iowa caucuses on Monday night could be the first step in deciding which Democrats win a spot on November’s election ballot for governor and one of Iowa’s congressional seats.

Many of the Democrats, and some of the Republicans, who attend the midterm party caucuses on Monday night will be there because they’ve been recruited by a candidate or a campaign. But that’s not the best reason to attend a caucus.

Yes, there’s a chance the Democratic gubernatorial nomination will be decided at the state convention, if no candidate wins at least 35 percent of the vote in the June 5 primary. That’s also a possibility in Iowa’s 3rd congressional district, where seven Democrats are seeking the nomination.

Most of the gubernatorial campaigns are organizing supporters to attend, even if they profess confidence they can win the primary outright.

“Since the summer, we’ve been organizing for the caucuses and for the primary. We’ve been running both tracks,” Joe O’Hern, campaign manager for gubernatorial candidate Nate Boulton, said. “It’s a great organizing tool to get more people involved, get people involved in the Democratic Party.”

Some campaigns, in fact, are working toward a convention nomination as a central strategy.

More: Competitive races for governor and Congress add intrigue to typically quiet midterm Iowa caucuses

“We are really moving forward with the presumption this is likely to be decided at convention,” John Norris said in a recent interview with the Register’s Jason Noble.

But Democrats who attend the caucuses hoping to pull off some sort of victory for a candidate may be disappointed. Most precincts probably won’t even divide into preference groups, as they do during presidential years. Those who do are likely to find most of their voters in the “undecided” corner. Delegates are unbound all the way to the state convention, no matter how their precinct votes.

“The unknown is really a factor here,” said Michelle Gajewski, campaign manager for Democrat Fred Hubbell.

She said the campaign will have some idea which of their supporters showed up, spoke for Hubbell or participated in the process. But the Hubbell campaign is working every day to attract supporters, Gajewski said, and she cast the caucuses as just one more such effort.

Democrat Andy McGuire’s campaign is reminding voters they don’t have to choose a candidate on caucus night. “I just hope people don’t make more of it than what it is,” campaign spokeswoman Monica Biddix said. She emphasized the campaign is focused on winning the primary.

The Republican gubernatorial primary will almost certainly be decided by the June primary, with no need for a convention vote. Even so, Gov. Kim Reynolds’ campaign has made “tens of thousands” of calls to encourage Republicans to caucus and to recruit precinct leaders, according to the campaign.

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“The Iowa Republican Caucuses are a key part of our grassroots effort to build a better Iowa, and they will show that the Reynolds-Gregg team has unprecedented support in every corner of Iowa,” campaign spokesman Pat Garrett said.

GOP primary challenger Ron Corbett, however, said the caucuses won’t matter. “Caucuses will be a non-event,” he said. “Nobody even knows they are coming up. The diehards/establishment will show up.”

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Mainstream Republicans learned the hard way a few years back that they can’t take for granted their control of their party leadership. After the 2012 presidential caucuses, it was supporters of former Texas Congressman Ron Paul who controlled the Republican Party of Iowa, even though Mitt Romney was the national party’s nominee.

Gov. Terry Branstad’s campaign put extra elbow grease into organizing the midterm caucuses in 2014 and ousted most of the Paul supporters from the state central committee.

Here’s my advice, for what it’s worth: Go to the caucuses to represent yourself.

Long before today’s popular gripe that elections are “rigged,” we had the all-too-common complaint that there are no good choices among the candidates on the ballot and the major parties do not care about us.

We can blame the influence of money and special interests. We can blame a system that caters to incumbents and punishes challengers. We can blame the major parties for stifling or marginalizing certain viewpoints.

But if we’re being honest, most of us have only ourselves to blame. We have better things to do, so we let other people show up, set the agenda and make the decisions. Our democracy suffers when most of us sit on the sidelines.

If you’re unhappy about the direction the state and federal government are going — or if you’re ecstatic and want to stay the course — the caucuses are an easy way to start getting involved.

Maybe you went to the women’s march last month and you don’t know what to do next. The caucuses can help you find that direction.

More: Whether you marched or not, it's always time for a bigger, louder conversation

Maybe you want to change something specific in your neighborhood or your community. You may meet people at the caucuses who feel the same way and want to help.

State party leaders will tell you their first and most important reason for holding caucuses is party-building. These small, neighborhood meetings provide the opportunity for individuals to have a voice, even if they’ve never been involved before.

The caucuses aren't for everyone. They're still not as accessible as they should be and the parties are continuing to work on that. People who really want to go can find help to attend.

The 2018 election could affect Iowa’s future for many years to come. The caucuses are your ticket into the game.

The caucuses start at 7 p.m. Monday. Get there early to check in. Find your caucus location and more information at Iowademocrats.org and iowagop.org.