Hi there from caucus night in Stillwell Junior High in West Des Moines. Tiger pride!
Conversation
Already had to let down a very excited Biden precinct leader by telling him that, alas, the guy in a flannel with his face in his phone is indeed a reporter and not in his corner.
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Talking with some very nice Amy Klobuchar fans who are hoping their Republican husbands change their party affiliation in time to caucus here tonight. One just arrived! The other promised, may be in trouble.
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Long line here but we’re winding down. Should commence the ceremony soon. Just getting in this good dog first.
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Hanging out with a small handful of unpleged caucus-goers here. Some have favorites, but still on the fence and want to hear everyone out one last time.
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Just one little old precinct, but Yang here barely has more to start with than Michael Bennet.
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The temporary chair, speaking here now, says he anticipates the turnout at the precinct breaking the record of 327. People are jazzed by this.
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The temporary chair is now being nominated as chair for life. “You do a great job, keep doing it,” a man shouts. This may take a while.
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Surprise: Seth Moulton is here in the gym to give a little speech for Joe Biden.
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The Warren precinct captain is now trying to cut a deal with the Yang group to make sure Warren is viable.
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I literally had to dramatically walk away from the Bloomberg section so they didn’t count me. Everybody laughed at me.
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Warren group here fighting for viability on final alignment after falling short in the first.
Just asked the precinct captain how it’s going as we near the end, got a big thumbs up and a smile. “We’re there!”
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Eeep. The chair announces they miscounted the total number of people. So the viability number here may be off. There is confusion. Let’s see!
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Final alignment (preliminary, because errors):
Buttigieg: 118
Sanders: 77
Klobuchar: 60
Warren: 56
Biden: 68, they think, they’ve been counting for quite a while.
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“I didn’t expect the Biden group to be this poor at math,” the chair says. And was booed! Remember he was nominated for chair for life just an hour ago, we have all come a long way.
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The caucus-goers are growing restless. There is murmuring. Tough night for Tiger Pride.
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The chair says: “is there a chance that anybody in a group did not sign in…”
Says there are 11 more people caucusing for candidates than the total initially counted.
So might just be time for me to go! Good luck, Stillwell Junior High.
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This seems like a genuine mess. A lotta people are leaving. Asked an Iowa Democratic Party official what was up, and she would not comment on record (and eventually decided against commenting off).
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The gist here as best I can tell: an IDP person will have to show up and reconcile signed cards with the overall roll, and potentially eliminate the extra cards. Democracy!
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