Hillary to the left, Rudy on the right.
Rudy Giuliani is the first Republican candidate with an office in Johnson County.
The Democratic stronghold, indelibly dubbed "the People's Republic of Johnson County" by David Yepsen, may seem like an odd spot for Giuliani to open only his second office in the state. But the move actually reflects a subtle understanding of the caucus process. Unlike the Democratic caucuses, where delegates are apportioned to counties and precincts by a complex formula based on general election returns, the Republican caucuses simply count raw votes. Though Johnson County is the most Democratic county in the state by percentage, it's still number eight in the number of registered Republicans, one notch ahead of GOP rotten borough Sioux County.
A Wednesday evening visit to Giuliani HQ found a half dozen or so staffers and volunteers in the front room, munching on Domino's pizza and grabbing phone lists for the evening. Outside, a woman who was clearly not a GOP supporter was attempting to debate one of the Giuliani folks, who was politely trying to escape. That's one hazard of opening a Republican office in downtown Iowa City.
The Giuliani office is located in a building on East College Street just east of the public library, a site that's become the go-to campaign HQ location this cycle. Rudy's renting space next door to Hillary Clinton, and the Obama office is just around the corner. The Richardson and Edwards offices are also nearby. In the 2006 cycle, the same building housed offices for the Democratic Party, Chet Culver, and Dave Loebsack.
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