Word: iowa
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...This is an advantage that Huckabee desperately needs to exploit, since his ground organization in Iowa pales in comparison to his rivals. He boasts a paid Iowa staff of just 14, up from eight at the start of November. By contrast, Republican Mitt Romney, who comes in second in most polls, has 17 full-time Iowa staffers, and another 60 part-time organizers who have been in place for months. At the end of each Romney event in Iowa, the candidate implores supporters to fill out cards so they can be put in the campaign's data-base...
...With this sort of folksy encouragement, Huckabee has bet that what he lacks in organization, he can make up for in enthusiasm, especially among the party's religious base. "Huckabee has a very active, passionate organization on the ground, but the campaign just isn't organized," said one veteran Iowa operative working for a rival Republican campaign. "He's got natural networks out there that are doing it themselves." These include some of the same networks that allowed Huckabee to place a surprise second in the August Ames straw poll: home schoolers, Bible study groups, and well-organized supporters...
...Thursday night event in Cedar Rapids, sponsored by the Iowa Christian Alliance, Huckabee showed why he has made such dramatic inroads with religious voters. He spoke of "the crisis going on in this culture of ours." He described gay marriage as a threat to the "skeletal system" of our civilization. He compared abortion to the practice of slavery, and quoted liberally from the Bible. It is rhetoric he sparingly used before more mixed audiences or on the trail in New Hampshire, where voters tend to be more private about their religious views. "You try to always scratch where the itch...
...Iowa, the evangelical appeal may be enough to carry him to victory, following the trail blazed by the televangelist Pat Robertson in 1988, who placed second in the Republican caucuses. If Huckabee wins Iowa, however, the rest of the Republican Party awaits, and it is unclear how they will respond to a candidate who speaks openly about class disparities in America. At minimum, the strategy is certain to define him against the rest of the Republican pack, which includes the son of a Navy admiral, John McCain, the son of a governor, Mitt Romney, and a wealthy big-city mayor...
...moved up in the hope that this booming part of the country would finally have a say in the presidential nominating process. But until recently, the plan appeared to many to be wishful thinking. Though Republicans followed suit in moving their caucus up as well, the corresponding decisions by Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina to schedule their primaries or caucuses even earlier in the 2008 calendar - not to mention the choice by such crucial states as California, Arizona and Colorado to join the flood of states holding their primary on February 5 - stole most of the thunder from Nevada...