Word: caucused
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Iowans were, and perhaps are, capable of some rascality. George Mills, Iowa journalist and historian, relates that in the early caucuses the requirement that time and place be posted on a tree was sometimes met by partisans' peeling the bark away, nailing the notice on the bare spot, then tacking the bark back over the notice. Once, says Mills, progressives found an old barn that they torched just as the Republican caucus began, and the unwitting standpatters rushed out of the hall to help with the fire while the progressives stayed, voted their will, then adjourned...
There probably will not be any barn burnings on this caucus night. But the airwaves will have been heated with exorbitant claims of the leadership qualities of the candidates, and the television folk heroes will have arrived along with 2,499 other journalists. The hype will reach to the far stars. Iowa will seem far bigger than it really is. America will have to rely on the enduring sense of those quiet heartland people...
...Adel, a town rejuvenated by yuppies who live there and work in Des Moines. She will meet precinct Co-Chairwoman Jean Siegrist, and they will check the coffeemaker, open up the doors and wait for their fellow Republicans to arrive. When the greetings are over, they will bring the caucus to order and ask their neighbors to cast the secret ballot that is the crucial straw vote on the presidential candidates. The count will be tallied and then beamed around the world. "It's a pretty amateurish affair," says Mrs. Hoy. "We sort of stumble through it, but it seems...
...Democratic Convention, where the barons forced the nomination of Hubert Humphrey. That provoked a spasm of reform that had stunning (and debilitating) success. The first in a series of party commissions radically altered the rules in favor of "open democracy." Increasingly, delegates chosen by primary or caucus would be bound to actual candidates rather than to party leaders who might use them in brokerage. Though the movement was a Democratic invention, Republicans were also affected because many changes were imposed by Democratic legislatures...
...encountering thousands of voters face to face. True, but the demands of that kind of campaigning work against prospects who hold difficult jobs -- New York Governor Mario Cuomo is the best current example -- and pressure candidates to lavish attention on small, well-organized interest groups. In the actual caucuses, less than 15% of enrolled Iowa voters usually participate, and the reported results are sometimes misleading. Drake University Professor Hugh Winebrenner, in a new book on the caucuses, The Iowa Precinct Caucuses: The Making of a Media Event (Iowa State University Press; $15.95), points out that even if his state were...