Iowa caucuses
Since 1976, the Iowa Caucus has been the first indication of which candidate for President of the United States would win the nomination of his or her political party at that party's national convention.
History
While the Iowa Caucus has been the first such caucus each year in the United States for a century, it only came to national attention in 1976, when obscure Georgia governor Jimmy Carter won the most votes at the Democratic caucus. In a major upset, he went on to win his party's nomnation and eventually the presidency. Since then, presidential candidates have focused increasingly on achieving a win in Iowa.
In 2000, for example, the Iowa Caucus results placed Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush far ahead of their rivals. The two would go on to win their parties' nominations later in the year.
The 2004 caucuses, similarly, should prove important to hopefuls for the Democtatic presidential nomination. Often, the caucus is an important factor in determining who remains in the race and who drops out. In the days leading up to the caucus, predictions showed candidates John Kerry and Howard Dean neck-and-neck for first place, with Dick Gephardt and John Edwards right behind them. Other candidates, notably Joseph Lieberman and Wesley Clark, who did not campaign in Iowa, failed to secure more than 5% of the vote.
Process
The Iowa Caucus operates very differently from the more common primary election used by most other states. The caucus is generally defined as a "gathering of neighbors". Rather than going to polls and casting ballots, Iowans gather at a set location in each of Iowa's 1,993 precincts. Typically, these meetings occur in schools, churches, or libraries.
In 2004, the meetings will run from 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM on 19 January, 2004. Each precinct will select a number of delegates to attend a county convention. For a candidate to recieve any delegates from a particular precinct, he or she must have the support of at least 15% of that precinct. This causes the caucuses, unlike primaries, to favor front-running candidates.
The delegates chosen by a precinct each support a specific candidate. For example, if one county in Iowa has 8 delegates, perhaps 3 will support John Kerry, 3 John Edwards, 2 Richard Gephardt, and 2 Howard Dean. The number of delegates each candidate recieves eventually determines how many state delegates from Iowa that candidate will have at the Democratic National Convention. Iowa sends 45 delegates to the DNC out of a total 4,366.
See also