A Day Off, Then More Work

Feels weird to have a morning after without numbers to crunch. Only number I have for you is 5: boxes of Stuff in my living room, where it will sit till our sorting party tomorrow night. Today I'm taking a break but not till after I tell you a little about how things went in Johnson County.

I had about 20 people at five precincts in the Iowa Memorial Union. It's our first time on campus since the Night Of The Screaming Dean a decade ago, when we almost got fire-coded out of the building. Since then, the caucus dates have made a campus site pointless, since dorms tend to be empty on January 3. So It was great to hang out with the UDems, with Nick Johnson, Mary Vasey and me representing for the old-timers. We were out the door by 8:15.

I've been on and off the central committee so many times I've lost count. This time, I'm on. My attitude is, I'll be around anyway so if a new person wants the job, great; I'm also unavailable to run the precinct on election day. (Also: I got my 18 Is Adult resolution passed on to the platform committee, where I expect it to have as good a chance as my chance of being appointed to the charter review board.)

City High reported the highest turnout with about 100 people in seven east side precincts and a big showing of elected officials and candidates, including Dave Loebsack. Paul Deaton has a nice writeup from Solon.

In the 1st Congressional district, my candidate Anesa Kajtazovic was at home in Black Hawk County, along with rivals Pat Murphy and Dave O'Brien. Monica Vernon was at home in Linn, and no reports on Swati Dandekar. Maybe she wandered into a GOP caucus and felt right at home.

It's really too soon to get a handle on who won the Republican Battle For Control or which candidates got their people into the right places. Most results are probably where mine are: in a box. Caucus night was only the preliminary stage. The more decisive stage will be at county conventions in March, where the district and state delegates are chosen. THOSE are the people who will decide the inconclusive primaries, if any.


Linn County, with one mass Republican site, was the place to be for the GOP, with most of the Senate candidates on hand. In Johnson County Republicans took a different approach, with most caucuses out in the neighborhoods and maybe three tops at any one location. The JCDems split the difference with nine locations. Curious what people prefer.

THANK YOU to everyone who helped make a successful caucus night. A special thanks to the cluster chairs: Travis Weipert in Tiffin, Rod Sullivan at City High, Karen Disbrow at Southeast, Peter Hansen at West High, Tom Larkin in Coralville, Diana Coberly in North Liberty, Bill Hanes and the Solon crew, and Gretchen & Kent Fuller in Hills. Also thanks to the exec board members and temp committee chairs. But it couldn't have happened without everyone's help.