Congressman Works Caucus for Clinton

Congressman Works Caucus for Clinton

A Washington State congressman was working the crowd in Iowa City for Hillary Clinton, who barely reached viability in the precinct.

Rep. Jay Inslee was in Iowa City Precinct 18, well known in Johnson County as one of the most liberal and highly attended caucus sites in the state or even the country.  Precinct 18 was one of three Johnson County precincts with over 700 in attendance at 720 people, up from 534 in 2004.

"Who has that kind of power, to say, 'Hey, I need some congressmen to ride some local folks in precinct 18 to get them to go for me?'," Sam Garchik of Blog for Iowa told Iowa Independent.  At Congressman Dave Loebsack's birthday party in December, the Clinton campaign sent Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, not to speak but simply to work the crowd.

"Hillary wasn't even viable at first count in 18," said Garchik, who lives in the precinct. "They had only about 75 people, and needed the other non-viable (candidates) to get to 110."  That was enough for two delegates, as Barack Obama won the precinct with five delegates and John Edwards took four.

Caucus night was Inslee's second Iowa City visit.  On his first trip, he announced his support for Clinton but focused on promoting his book Apollo's Fire: Igniting America's Clean Energy Economy with an appearance at Prairie Lights Books.