Standing for democracy: Final thoughts from the Iowa caucuses

Scene from the Precinct 55 caucus site in Des Moines, Iowa, Monday, Feb. 3, 2020.

The Precinct 55 caucus site in Des Moines, Iowa on Monday night, Feb. 3, 2020. (Paul Clark)

Retired PNC Bank executive Paul Clark and his wife, Jill, are in Iowa, crossing a big item off their bucket list: experiencing the Iowa caucuses, the first votes in the nation in the 2020 presidential race. Paul will regularly offer his insights to cleveland.com readers – not as a commentator or a partisan, just as an observer representing cleveland.com who has always wanted to see this democratic process play out up close.

DES MOINES, Iowa - Monday evening I observed at a caucus site (55 Precinct) that encompasses downtown Des Moines and a growing area much like our Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood. The caucus was held in the atrium of a new eight-story office building downtown. Participants totaled 844, up from 648 in 2016.

I head counted over 200 caucus goers who registered or changed parties on site. A caucus volunteer told me “We’ve been getting emails with instructions about how to do this for weeks and never expected a new registrants or a change in party line like this.” This crowd was the youngest, most diverse crowd I saw over the week.

The first alignment process started at 7:20 and it took about 30 minutes to form the alignment. 15% or 127 caucus goers were required for viability: Yang, Biden and Klobuchar were not viable. My estimate of the final totals: Buttigieg and Sanders at 400; Warren at 200. Later I learned Buttigieg was awarded 5 delegates, Sanders 5 and Warren 4. The entire process was wrapping up in just over an hour. 844 people standing for democracy!

I write this as the results of the Iowa caucus are still unknown. Neither the new application used to report precinct results nor the phone call backup plan worked. The Iowa Democratic Party is tediously hand counting the paper flow each caucus site reports to be sure the count is correct. What is interesting is that in the Precinct 55 Caucus, there was real order and organization. The precinct captain leading the caucus was a veteran and ran the program with a clipboard and a whistle! A relatively large caucus with 844 participants and more on-site registrations than expected went smoothly.

I formed a new perspective and respect for the press this week. Media coverage is hard work! There’s a needed athleticism, choreography and resilience to carry audio/video gear and jockey for position to get a better photo frame. The video and story editing begins immediately on laptops and continues in real time throughout the event. I am reminded of lyrics from Jackson Browne’s song The Load Out: “Pack it up and tear it down…They’re the first to come and the last to leave…They’ll set it up in another town.”

Reporters edit their stories at an Andrew Yang event in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

Reporters edit on their laptops at an Andrew Yang event in Cedar Falls, Iowa. (Paul Clark)

While they work long hours on the road, the media I met were graciously accessible and keen to share their thoughts with me. I had the opportunity to talk with Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post covering her sixth Iowa caucus; David Grossman from the BBC, who has been on the road since September and helped me understand better this U.S. election cycle in the context of Brexit, Prime Minister Johnson and the recent UK election; Dan Merica of CNN; Amie Rivers from the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier; Heath Neiderer, who leads C-SPAN’s community outreach work nationwide and Jeff Zeleny of CNN, who offered me helpful historical context for this 2020 Iowa caucus. All these veterans made time for me and for that I’m grateful. I learned much from all. They are all off to New Hampshire where “they’ll set it up in another town.” Great journalists all standing for democracy!

The media attracts an important level of criticism. But my observation is that, no matter what their role, these hard-working people were reporters moreso than analysts or opinion leaders. They were reporting the play-by-play the best they could and working to get it right. Reporters reminded me of the best teachers I had in school: both are important to our lives and provide information to help us ask the questions we need to function as engaged citizens. Like teachers, we need more reporters who are paid for their real value.

Lastly, thanks to cleveland.com, Chris Quinn, Jane Kahoun and Seth Richardson, who said yes when I asked them if I could to do this assignment. You helped me and encouraged me more than my words can express.

Read more:

Nothing beats being on the ground for Iowa caucus campaigning

Putting the Iowa caucuses in context

281 miles, 14 and a half hours, 3 candidate events in Iowa

Stranger in a strange land: The Iowa vibe before the caucuses

Former Cleveland PNC Bank chief Paul Clark will join cleveland.com for Iowa caucus coverage

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