Iowa Dems Take No Action On Caucus Date

Iowa Dems Take No Action On Caucus Date

The Iowa Caucuses will be Jan. 14. No, seriously, Jan. 14.

That's the official word out of Des Moines Saturday as the Iowa Democratic Party's state central committee met, mostly in closed session, without taking action in response to other states that have moved their contests ahead of the Democratic National Committee's official calendar.

But even though the top Democrats have signed pledges to skip the event, Michigan's primary is now officially scheduled for Jan. 15, as Gov. Jennifer Granholm signed the bill into law this week. And with Iowa's eight days before any other contest law still on the books, and New Hampshire still waiting to make its move, it's still rather likely that the caucus date will move.

Here's a summary of the schedule as it officially stands today.

Saturday, Jan. 5: Wyoming Republican county conventions. The Republican National Committee has already promised delegate-loss sanctions as part of an "automatic" process. “If a state chooses to go outside the window, they are automatically penalized,” said a R.N.C. official during a Tuesday conference call. “It’s not a may; it’s a shall.” In theory that includes the states that the Democrats have OK'd for early contests.

Monday, Jan. 14: Iowa caucuses, both parties. Officially approved by DNC.

Tuesday, Jan. 15: Michigan primary, both parties. RNC promises punishment, DNC expected to take action.

Saturday, Jan. 19: Nevada Democratic caucuses, DNC approved. South Carolina Republican primary, not approved by GOP and delegate loss is promised.

Tuesday, Jan. 22: New Hampshire primary, both parties. DNC approved as first primary.

Tuesday, Jan. 29. South Carolina Democratic primary, DNC approved. Florida primary, both parties. RNC has promised delegate loss. DNC has voted to give Florida Democrats 30 days to back down or lose all delegates.

Tuesday, Feb. 5. First day after DNC's early state window, and de facto national primary day.

Other events in the week's leapfrog news:

The New York Times profiles New Hampshire secretary of state Bill Gardner, whose purpose in life is keeping the Granite State first.

Tuesday, Florida Governor Charlie Crist said he'd veto any bill that would move the state that started this year's leapfrogging from it's Jan. 29 date. Not that the GOP-led legislature was going to pass such a bill anyway.

Craig Crawford at CQ Politics argued that the Democrats made a mistake by pledging not to campaign in Florida and docking the state delegates:

This all means that only Democrats would forgo campaigning during the coming months in an electoral vote-rich state that the party must keep fired up for the general election. Florida Democratic activists are so furious that they predict the controversy will dampen their enthusiasm come November 2008.

Maybe. But will real world voters care about this, or just precinct captains? And will those Florida precinct captains, who have been waiting eight long years to avenge Al Gore, really sit November out? And does anyone expect that the Democratic nominee will actually kick the Florida delegation out of the convention hall?

Finally, Talking Points Memo reported Friday that DNC chair Howard Dean sent a letter to national committee members defending the party's play by the rules policy:

"This process is not easy, and, no doubt, there are more than enough hurt feelings to go around. But none of us can forget that our shared ultimate goal is to select the nominee best prepared to lead us to victory on November 4, 2008 and out of the Bush wilderness. To do that, we must continue to work together."

All an Iowan can say to that is: YEAH!