Dear Commons Community,
Democratic presidential candidates traveled across Iowa yesterday making last minute appeals to voters for today’s caucuses. As reported by the Associated Press.
“Speaking to several hundred supporters in Cedar Rapids Sunday, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders declared “we are the campaign of energy and excitement” and said “we are in a position to win tomorrow night.”
Pete Buttigieg, the 38-year-old former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, talked up his newcomer status, telling a rally in Coralville that when Democrats have won the White House in the past, “we have done it with someone who is new in national politics.”
But former Vice President Joe Biden, emphasizing his decades of Washington experience, told voters there’s no time for “on-the-job training.” Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren pressed her supporters to “fight back” if they ever lose hope.
Underlying the bold pronouncements, campaigns and voters acknowledged a palpable sense of unpredictability and anxiety as Democrats begin selecting which candidate to send on to a November face-off with President Donald Trump. The Democratic race is unusually large and jumbled heading into Monday’s caucus. Four candidates were locked in a fight for victory in Iowa; others were in position to pull off surprisingly strong finishes.
“This is going to go right down to the last second,” said Symone Sanders, a senior adviser to Biden’s campaign.
Polls show Biden in a close race in Iowa with Sanders, Warren and Buttigieg. Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang are also competing aggressively in the state.
Democrats’ deep disdain for Trump has put many in the party on edge about the decision. A series of external forces has also heightened the sense of unpredictability in Iowa, including Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate, which marooned Warren, Sanders and Klobuchar in Washington for much of the past week.
Many campaigns were looking to a final weekend poll to provide some measure of clarity. But late Saturday night, CNN and The Des Moines Register opted not to release the survey because of worries the results may have been compromised.
New caucus rules have also left the campaigns working in overdrive to set expectations before the contest. For the first time, the Iowa Democratic Party will release three sets of results: who voters align with at the start of the night; who they pick after voters supporting nonviable candidates get to make a second choice; and the number of state delegate equivalents each candidate gets.
The new rules were mandated by the Democratic National Committee as part of a package of changes sought by Sanders following his loss to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential primaries. The revisions were designed to make the caucus system more transparent and to make sure that even the lowest-performing candidates get credit for all the votes they receive. But party officials in Iowa and at the DNC have privately expressed concerns in recent weeks that not just Sanders but multiple campaigns will spin the results in their favor, potentially creating chaos on caucus night.
The Associated Press will declare a winner in Iowa based on the number of state delegates each candidate wins. The AP will also report all three results.”
The media will be in a news frenzy tonight reporting the results.
Tony
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