Why Iowa?

I have spent an unexpected* last few days in Mason City, Iowa, my hometown and where my parents still live. It’s an interesting season in Iowa right now…not just weather-wise (although I did see my first snowflakes of the season last night), but it’s presidential campaign season. It’s hard to miss the fact that Iowa has the first test of the presidential race every four years, especially with how crazy the caucus/primary schedule has gotten this year, and it’s really hard to miss it when you’re in Iowa. There has been a parade of candidates through Mason City in the last week, almost literally- Mitt Romney, Bill Richardson, John McCain, Tom Tancredo (scary!), and Hillary Clinton (who I went to see speak last night) have all been in town since last Thursday.

There have been a lot of people in the media and elsewhere saying, “Why Iowa? Why do they think they’re so important that they have to be first?” Now, as a native Iowan, I know I’m biased when it comes to answering this question, but this is my take on things. Iowans take their “first-in-the-nation” status VERY seriously. Granted, not all Iowans, but a lot of them. They study the candidates’ positions, ask good questions, aren’t afraid to tell a candidate they haven’t made up their mind. The pastor at the UCC church my mom plays the organ at got a phone call from Barack Obama himself (a UCC member), asking her thoughts about issues. She told him during the course of the conversation that she hadn’t made up her mind who she was going to support- now how many people do you know that would say that to Obama’s face?

I witnessed one example of the seriousness of Iowans last night at the campaign event for Hillary Rodham Clinton. Hillary is not my first choice for the Democratic nomination, but I figured since I was in town I might as well go hear her speak. I figured there wouldn’t be much of a crowd since it was indeed snowing, but I arrived to a packed room of about 750 people who had come out in the cold and wind to hear her speak. Granted, some of them may have just come so they could say they “saw her when”, since there’s a lot of talk about her lead in nationwide polls. But people listened, paid attention to what she said, and asked really good questions at the end. She, as a candidate, was very impressive, and whoever her advance people are, they had done their homework. There were several references to local happenings, including a rumor that the local National Guard unit would be called up for duty in Iraq in late 2008 (which was unfortunately confirmed).

I got really irritated a few months ago when I read an article about Obama’s trainings for volunteers that would be canvassing in Iowa. The trainings were taking place in Chicago, and the idea was to train volunteers to go to Iowa to meet with voters and try to get them to commit to voting for Obama. I’m a big fan of grassroots action (which might be as a result of my upbringing in Iowa), and I think Obama himself has the right idea when it comes to these things, as evidenced by the aforementioned phone call to the local pastor. But in the article about this training, it said that when one of the volunteers asked about what they were to say when a Iowa voter asked about where Obama stood on a particular issue, the volunteer was told by the Obama staffer to just refer the person to Obama’s website. WRONG MOVE. Iowans aren’t dumb. They know what these volunteers are doing, and when they ask questions, they want answers- they don’t want to be referred to a website. These are people who regularly get the opportunity to pose questions directly to the candidate; they don’t want some college kid coming in to tell them to vote for their guy without something to back it up. Yes, have the volunteers tell their stories about why they support Obama, but send them off with some training in his policy stances and what issues are important to him.

Iowa is a rural state, and there are a lot of issues that are of prominance nationwide that people think Iowans wouldn’t get or don’t care about. Sure, the Farm Bill is of utmost importance here (call your senators, by the way, and ask for them to lower the ceiling for subsidies!), but they’re also concerned about immigration, poverty, jobs, health care, you name it. They don’t take the responsibility of holding the first caucuses lightly by any means. Are there issues with the caucus process itself? Yes, but we’ll save that for another posting. But for those people who question “Why Iowa?”, I invite you to visit my home state during campaign season and find out for yourselves.

*My dad had a heart attack last Thursday, but is doing well. He arrived home from the hospital just moments ago, and is expected to make as full of recovery as is possible after a heart attack. Prayers/good thoughts for healing and well-being are very much appreciated!