Mr. Richard bender. ,e grew up in new york city Iowa State University in 1967. In 1970, he joined the staff of the Iowa Democratic party where, in addition to campaign activities, he was an architect of the modern democratic conference. He became a special assistant in 1975 and was on senator tom harkins staff until 2013. He was the senior legislative onistant who focused appropriations, taxes, economic development, and infrastructure. Inoughout his years congress, he remained involved in the iowa caucus system and helped many of the various efforts to replace iowa from its first in the nation physician. Anybody deserves the name of being the midwife of the Iowa Caucuses, it is probably richard bender. Richard i will has always had caucuses, going back to statehood. 1972, the National Convention delegate was selected by party leaders. Caucusesending the were not doing the attending in order to promote a particular candidate. , awas more of a social event place where people active in the party could receive the recognition they deserve as a delegate to the county convention. Usually you had 10,000 or 20,000 people show up. In 1968, with the vietnam war growing, about 70,000 people for the showed up. Caucus and the professors home where they expected maybe 10 people and includingshowed up getting that in in the out window. Know, clearly the mayber folks probably had 1, but the story was both sides claimed victory in the Iowa Caucuses. And no one cared and no one actually had a count ever. If you could have had a count, in about three or four weeks. If you managed to call them all up once you had their names. There were two things that happened. One in 1968 and one in 1970, that yielded by pure accident to the system. 1968, the state convention was the last item of his this by thed on a vote therman of the convention, platform was agreed to in the convention was over. Upset. Were pretty the second thing that happened that70, in des moines, was two groups might call the new brickactually the gym faction of reality, those that hated gym brick and those that hated norman matthews. [laughter] folks hadm brick about three more delegates at the county convention than the side. People were offering three of the 400 and some delegates neglected to the state convention. They did not think that was quite fair. People who are upset and angry do not show up to walk to work on election day. It made it a party problem. In 1970, we have finally taken the position of by the new guy, the socalled antiwar folks, and we were now empowered to do something about reform. There was a meeting of new democrats in marshalltown, and a lot of ideas were batted around. Those ideas to cliff, who formed the committee, which mostded bob fulton and uh importantly [indiscernible] as the chair with [indiscernible] on the central committee. They try to figure out what they should do. Basically dealing with those two difficulties. The recommendation that was accepted was that the convention would all be appointed from below. Caucus attenders would elect the committees of the county and so forth, but that meant you had to create a Congressional District convention, which we didnt used to have. You couldnt have 99 people selecting a fair share of the numbers in a committee. You would have 500 people. You also had to mail the proposals to the delegates. Dated six weeks in between. That was one of the elements. We had a very early in the process. The second thing was the idea of proportional representation. My memory is that the guy who ,as a guy named ray morgan it have broad support. Had been a strong pusher for that idea in a national commission. You know, but the original proposal that went to that committee of four when i presented it, it was that people should divide into groups and divide by anything. Candidate, by whatever they wanted. They could divide on decisive issues. You did not want divisive issues. You did not want within little factual groups dividing everything up. The idea was just make them divide by candidate. Hughes, who had been all for it at the National Level, was thinking of running for president. Was ifstand the remark to have toants me get 85 in every blank blank Congressional District to have united delegation . When i called for cliff larson, the chairman of the party, he indicated his views. Cliff promised that he would not propose it, but he also wouldnt kill it. He would just let the kid do it. So, i walked into the meeting and i kind of sense that people from the Senators Office may have made a few calls. People have said wait a minute, you know, do we want our party to be known by all of whoe kids on the campuses show up in such shoot numbers . Is that what we want . I said we will only report the county delegates, but we will all be however many show up, it just will make any difference. Vote with aone that vote to spare. Know,e system that we now which essentially at the caucus level has been unchanged since then, was born. You know, you know, its, its , so, its like , nobody you know, the importance of the changes that occurred to them, thats what they would do. No one had any clue of how significant iowa would become. In 1972, as in 68, there was a level of activity mainly all by iowans, with a few visits by the national candidates. Not very many. And we we moved towards the caucuses. I went to my own caucus and then i walked over to where they were going to do the count at the state headquarters and i borrowed a memory calculator because i wanted to do a lot of calculations fast. I was the only one doing the calculations. We had 10 or 12 press people show up. These press people included one guy who, as you mentioned before , was johnny apple. You know, he wrote a story about you know, this guy named mcgovern. He didnt win, but he came in much better than expected. That got picked up, as was just mentioned, by some of the National News shows. Wow, all of a sudden we were being paid attention to. The jimmy carter did see that. He came in. And really put work in. No one had ever for the kind of effort that jimmy carter put into the state. So, with his victory you had established a lot in the caucuses. Were i remember that it may have been later, but i think that there were 12 or 10 reporter showing up and i was by 10 people from japanese tv. Point first of all, uncommitted one in 72 and 76. The sun is people hadnt necessarily decided, but they really, the whole idea of the game at the caucus level was not understood. Thinking ill well, im going to hold my fire because we really want to see in 70appens in in at the county and district conventions. They didnt get that the whole game was caucus night. You know, now tv is really big. Of dollars will be spent there on tv, i expect. Unfortunately not by the candidate committees in many cases. But it still iowa is still a place, just like it was in 1976, where a candidate going around and meeting people, answering questions, is still very, very important. If the candidate doesnt do that, they will lose big time in iowa. Hampshire are the only places where that occurs. Its all driven at the media level. Not by field organizations, for the most part. This is this reality creates a total different responsibility the candidate, a totally different impact on the national race. Iowa is notson, really a replaceable situation. Also, iowa is an incredibly clean place, you know . Whenlike the truth is hamm jordan and governor carter came in 1975 to talk to party leaders, which included myself, we will not we were not really suzy asked about the governor from georgia frankly he was a little more conservative than was our he didnt agree with our analysis but the important thing is that the party always treated him and everyone fairly. They charge a lot more now, but i think we charged three dollars for the list of delegates to the state convention, which one are copy cost. [laughter] you were ino wonder debt when i went to the party. [laughter] mr. Bender absolutely. Completely bare. A story, theres a rumor that iowa,rkin, senator from the leader of the iowa democrat, very well respected, still living, incoming iowa, small town of a few hundred people. Hes with dean. Everyone knows it. Dean really does poorly. The reality is no one thought thats a negative on tom harkin. People felt no compulsion because somebody important said well, this is the guy. They didnt feel the responsibility or the need to be there. They did what was right from their personal perspective. Field staff came in. They have their list of their number ones. Toldeople whom they say or about this candidate or that candidate. Its it doesnt its totally normal to see mary talking to joan and all of a sudden the number ones disappear. Completely the norm. Undamental to the caucus its that interaction. People go to enjoy that interaction and the ability to show people into their group from some other group. I want to mention one other rule. We had this 15 rule came out because the delegates to the Congressional District conventions, there were like seven delegates. Three tickets for iowa. We are only counting the county delegates. So, in most places you have zero. Because you have zero in most places, the reports going to 1 for you know bender. Well, after the obituary story, who is covering him . Nobody. You are done completely. I think the republicans would just love, love, love to have that 15 rule. Also means that the people for the candidate with only 8 , they get to go to their second choice. That improves the result. You dont have all of this little scatter that might aggregate to a significant number. It is aggregated right there at the caucus level. With that i will let someone else talk for a bit. Thank you,on richard. That was interesting and fascinating. As you were describing the way that it worked, you were talking about the Democratic Caucus . Mr. Bender thats completely right. Mr. Covington odd as it might seem, we now get to hear from the first and over only republican of the day. Woolson. He was the Campaign Manager for mike huckabee. He was the advisor for tim valentis president ial campaign in 2011 and was also the Iowa Communications director for three other republican campaigns. U. S. Senator Chuck Grassley in 2010, doug gross for governor in in 2000. 2 and bidens 1988joe president ial bid. Im sure that he will have some interesting insights, having experience both sides of the process w. Help me welcome eric woolson. [applause] ms. Murray mr. Woolson thank you so much. I was terribly worried all week, knowing that i would be a. Richard, jeannie. I kept thinking about mark twain mouthter to keep your shut and have people think you are an idiot than to open your mouth and have people know that you are an idiot. [laughter] i have been on edge knowing that there is so much Institutional Knowledge appear and so much experience from folks who have been through this process. There can see, rich was through the nuts and bolts of the process. Im not sure that i can remember what i had for breakfast today. We will keep our fingers crossed. Its just so fascinating to hear tims remarks and to know that what he did 40 years ago really sets the Gold Standard. I just came off Governor Walkers campaign. The plus side is a dont have to drive the winnebago. The downside is your im, not a lot to do tomorrow afternoon either. Or monday. [laughter] tuesday, the office is going to be kind of quiet. Wednesday is not looking much better at this point. Set thed, tim really Gold Standard and we do do things differently with the republican campaigns. But there is that fundamental idea of iowans talking to iowans. Thats what the caucuses are all about. You know, my early background, the first 20 years of my career i spent as a journalist. Probably the most important 12 years were at the courier. I got to see them awful lot of republican candidates, and awful lot of Democratic Candidates over the years. One of the things that really strikes me about the caucuses is the impact that the bush family has had on our process. I remember in 1979 i was a freelance reporter at the time. I remember that there were a. Ouple of guys that came in they worked for the bush campaign. Ambassadorupport for bush. And think how much has that has changed over the years. As tim said, you got steve forbes there with this magnificent tent. It had the french doors you forgot to mention that. All the money that they spent on the process, up to 2011. Plentyith the governor at that point. The bachmann campaign spent a little over 2 Million Building a building on the site. So, just amazing how this process has changed. I think that one of the things that has been this constant has been iowans talking to iowans. One of the things i was working about worried about so much in the 2000 campaign is whether the caucuses would change because of the george w. Bush influence of running his campaign very much like an incumbent campaign. Like a president ial campaign. He had obviously seen how his father had done the events. Exceptional advance people with a lot of money. A lot of money makes a big difference. That 1999 early 2000s , we would hold two or three events per day and that was about it. Be 300, 400, 500, 600 people there. It was a very different process than what i had seen when covering candidates as a political reporter where you are out on the road with gary hart for three days. Hes speaking to nine or 15 people in cedar rapids and building that slowly. To the point where he has a 1984. Successful night in in 2008, when i managed governor huckabee, i guess it is kind of be careful what you wish for. We were back to nine people, 15 people. I remember the governor huckabee would often say to me where are all the people . Where is everybody . I would tell him that this is the traditional process, this is how it works. An opportunity for us as iowans to look people in the eye and if we are not happy with this really to go back and get that followup question that is so rare here. Another thing, the young folks who are covering the race is here that work for those iowa media outlets, telling us how fortunate and blessed we are to have this opportunity that so many other states really dont , i think you this year kind of bringing it full circle here, this year we have gone to the the straw poll and the value of it. It became such a big event on its own. National media, folks in other states really had that concern that iowa was getting two bites at the apple. Donty of us say that we choose a president ial candidates, but we do help to we know them down. That thats what we do. But there is that feeling that with the straw poll, when governor plenty dropped out in particular, the idea was that we were starting to lose quality candidates so early in the process, we wanted to see things go differently. As an organizer i was always very happy to have that straw poll. Gave me the opportunity when i was a Campaign Manager when i had someone in Council Bluffs saying i would bring 15 people i havey brought three someone saying i will bring 10 people and they bring 50, well, that helps me start to figure out as a Campaign Manager where i need to put my resources. Ive always liked it for that reason. But i do appreciate the idea that we have stepped back. I dont know what its future will be, but stepping back this time round is taking some of the pressure off the caucuses. There is always that push to get rid of iowa as a caucus state. Another move that our state party has made that is a positive is the idea of going to the proportional representation theof the caucuses to county conventions, onto the district in the state. We hadthat issue where senator santorum, governor romney virtually tied on caucus night and then ron paul ends up with 22 of the delegates. I think that weve made some reforms. As a party were pointed in the right direction. Here overng to happen the next 80 days is anybodys guess, but stay tuned and we will see where it goes. [applause] thank you very much. One little side note on george bush having so much money in 2000, the reason he did was that she was the first candidate to turn down public money. So, every other candidate was operating with a limit of 34 million for the whole campaign. He had more than that in january and round up of 130 million. He was rolling in the dough. Mr. Woolson absolutely. And when we travel the state we were on a gulfstream for, which beat the heck out of my ford contour. [laughter] mr. Covington fantastic. Our third strategist right now is jeannie murray. Having served as an iowa representative and on the boswell chief of staff on capitol hill, the executive director of the eye with democratic already and a Campaign Manager. Additional additionally she has worked in key roles on a variety of federal and local campaigns. Today she served as the iowa state director for howard dean during his campaign 2004. She got here in a big hurry, so lets welcome her as she arrived in time. Thank you. [applause] mr. Bender i wanted to thank ms. Murray i wanted to thank the Hoover Library in the Iowa Public Library center, its always reminiscent of one of the most painful moments in my career. You googledago if my name the screen speech would stop coming up. Folks into note a few the crowd, i grew up down the road and its really great to see senator jones here, others i missed ensure that ive missed ensure, but they were Strong Political mentors of mine. Additionally i was a little upset to note that our panel is prior to davids panel. I wanted to have the opportunity to rebut whatever he was going to say. But then i realized that we are both in different roles now. I always used to say that david in his column, it was the law or rule of physics according to david. Had a good column from him, next time you would have an equally negative one. Want to talk about sorry, im a technology person, so my notes are on my phone. I wanted to talk personally about my experience on the caucuses and talk about how that has bigger implications for what we see nationally and what has happened since the last time i was on a caucus. My first as a staff member was 1996, working for clintongore. There was one nonclintongore delegate in the state of iowa, in my region of course. It was josh cox, by the way. Of course, after the caucuses the National Field director was like and whos that one . Erson i was like that would be me. In 2000, working for congressman vicell, he had endorsed president gore early on. We were able to come back and do a lot of stuff. It was just a very interesting process to see a residing right residing Vice President historically theres never been a Vice President that has run for the partys nomination that didnt get it. If you were around in 1999 or 1998, there was a distinct possibility that history could have been broken. So, senator bradley ran against him. I think that one of the turning points that continually happens with me was the Jefferson Jackson dinner. I was like to call it the democratic version of the election day. Usually its that they were you go full force towards election day. There is kind of no more scoring around. You are out there fighting, working all day and working all night. It is kind of the last hurrah before you do that hard charge towards the caucuses. , thats whencuses Vice President gore came out. One of the early consulting came up with the idea of stay and fight. He sent a memo to our office suggesting that we need to encourage this. The Vice President really needed a theme and a message. About a week before the Jefferson Jackson dinner the speech was created and there was all theme around stay and fight. I think that really brought a lot of democrats that were looking towards senator bradley back home to the Vice President. That the Vice President had fought all of these battles and been around. I think that really helped a lot with that. When you have these moments at the Jefferson Jackson dinner as a candidate, as folks have said prior to this, you really need the Organization Behind you. You cant just have the moment and then just think you can stay in for the next 100 days. The Organization Needs to be behind you to do that. My First Political campaign, first im working, i was a field staffer in 1992. Bonnie campbell came and talked to us. Said just know that when you are organizing phone breaks might have to organize 11 night with the kennedy people and the next night with the carter people because the kennedy people might not like the carter people anymore and i remember thinking to myself geez, that was 12 years ago. People are still harboring those kinds of emotions . Never really internalize that until i was on the Dean Campaign. Thinkan kerry thing i i felt that viscerally. What bonnie had told us so many years earlier. On the Dean Campaign i called another political mentor of mine, john morris. I said you know, governor dean is running for president and he wants me to be a state director. At that time there were four people on his campaign. I was like i dont know if i should do it, im really burnt out. Gore was painful, losing that. I dont know if i want to do this. John was like jeannie, if you are going to have 10 months of fun, the last couple of months you just have to really hard charge. If the guy gets third, itll be awesome, itll be great. Both of those things were completely wrong and i still did it. From day one it was a race. It was a lot of hard work, a lot of fun, and we did some interesting things that have continued to make differences in politics today. Our biggest thing that we were trying to do in that campaign, i think people really like him in their hearts. I think he won the heart argument but i think that people with president bush in office sorry, eric the democrats really wanted someone that they thought could be president bush. But they really liked what governor dean had to say and it energized them. Our goal was always to create opportunities were we thought he could win. He was the first candidate to go to all 99 counties. The first to announce supporters and all of them. The first candidate to announce a county chair. It was all about finding local people to come in and add that organizational structure and show that he had the support and could win. From the 99 county strategy, when he lost the president ial he went to become the dnc chairman and he took that to the dnc and he ran the 50 strip 50 state strategy, which was beneficial to the 2006 elections and winning back the house in 2006. He learned that here in iowa. I was trying to remember some of the stories the other day and he was like absolutely, 50 states as a strategy, thats right got that. I think that one of the things that was unique, as everyone has iom supportar, being so critical, as you may recall he had a lot of support nationally in people all over the country wanted to do stuff for him. One of the things that we did this was like june and july, the summer of 2003. The National Staff wanted to be able to put these people to use. As you know on campaigns, when you have people more interested, they want to put their heart and soul into it, you want to give them a job to do. The most important thing on the campaign at that moment was iowa. So, what we decided to do was we had people from around the country, we paid a little bit more than three dollars for the list, richard. [laughter] that particular list we divided up and gave to supporters around the country to write letters to the people of iowa. We had meet ups around the country there were meet ups all over where people would sit down and write letters. We were very clear with them about not being dont tell iowans what to do, that kind of philosophy. People of iowa take it seriously, but expressed to them why was important to them that governor dean become president and sincerely ask for support for governor dean. Those letters were unbelievably effective. Thats really when things started taking off for us, nationally. Also, by the way, something that hadnt been done and it was kind of a quaint concept. I was a bit critical in it not think it would work. I said that they really take this seriously. They just want to be able to give the guy there. Get them to iowa so that they have the opportunity to vote for him in texas. Was an that that effective and interesting tool that we used. For the caucuses we knew that these people wanted to come help the governor. Of fodderbeen lots about the perfect storm and the kids and adults who came in, kids at heart, i like to think of them, coming from all over the country to knock on doors. There was a lot of criticism about that. Frankly i think that those people were going to come to iowa regardless. We needed to take advantage of them. There was this huge, terrible snowstorm one night. There were people all over the floor in our headquarters and they were committed to him. It does a district does a disservice to dismiss those folks. That is kind of another trend. Look, now everybody has purple and pink hair. Another trend that we set. I think that at that particular moment, people were going to , so lets put them to use and use them in a way that we felt was effective. We had a backlash on that, a little bit. Things. Re a few for us it was a crescendo. We had governor dean speak from the balcony. If anyone has ever been, you know that there are 1500 seats on the floor and those of the big tickets, people with a lot of money. Campaigns and individuals purchase tickets in the balconies. Those are 15. To governor dinos like us this is what your campaign is about, we should give your speech from up there and we can make it happen. It kind of got poohpoohed from other individuals. We decided to have the governor be introduced from the balcony. I kind of knew the folks who were running the show. There were a couple of funny things about that. One, there was always a signboard showing that you had a ton of support. We had a couple of staffers in charge of it. The day before jj they called me over and said lets get over to the auditorium, and we knew where the cameras were going to be. The sign number one would always be in the shot. We mapped out where we wanted things. We had thers later walkthrough with all the campaigns. Our two dean staffers who had been with me, they made a fake map and were putting in jeannies number one spot for a sign. It was like the worst spot ever. Must have sign here. Theres been a few more of those. During the walkthrough with the campaigns the map would be out there prominently. It down with her notebooks and pick them up that left the map and lowered the whole, the karen people took the map and thats whether signs were at. You know, little fun things like that. Another kind of fun thing was when the governor went to go he was concerned about being able to make it to the balcony unseen. Verification, for trust the verify. Are goinglike we to do it, going to make it happen. All the candidates are back in the. You know, there were 7000 people, we had to sneak them out in the balcony. One of the staffers who is ,elping on the dinner eventually five to 10 minutes later senator kerry was kind of he knew that something might be up. , whereske a howard . This particular staffer said i think you went to the restroom. 10 minutes later he was there in front of the crowd. Which was fun. Those guys in the balcony, we had those huge signs over them. Signs that unfurled at the end of his speech, which was really funny, because it was all about trying to show that he can win. What i think happened, theously, between jj and caucus night, 25 million was dumped on governor dean. The club for growth and republicans started taking lots of swipes at him. And we stepped on her feet a few times. It wasnt just thrown at us. But there are some things the , thento peoples heads head just wasnt there for him. President obama, whats the beneficiary there . People in iowa and across the country were like you know, we dont think who would have thought that president obama could have been president obama . I think they loved him and to elect him and they were willing to go with their heart in the 2000 seven and 2008 caucuses because they have been burned in the previous cycle. We want toaid go with our heart. Thats just kind of my observation on that. I think that that was hugely helpful. The other thing about the as people say, organize locally. Whats very interesting with the reorganization, doing all of that death when i walked into my precinct caucus, in the state of iowa there was probably not an attendee that knew more about the governor or the caucus process. Caucuswalked into that in 2000 four either for governor dean or against him. I think that happened in 2008 as well. I thought people walked in and they were not people moving over for governor dean. What was kind of the deathknell was when Dennis Kucinich told his people on caucus day to go with edwards if not viable. Edwards was a prowar candidate and kucinich was the only other antiwar candidate. That really took the issue out for governor dean. The numbers8 at level, one delegate per precinct. Doing the math afterwards really made a difference. Kucinich really made the difference. All, i love the caucuses. I love talking about them. Im glad that we are still going today. I think its really important. Again, i appreciate being here. Thank you, gary. [applause] fantastic. On we wanted to give a little bit of a time to see if the panelists had comments or questions for each other. This is kind of an opportunity to pick one of our brains, so to speak. Mr. Woolson one of the things that she said that struck home with me was that it makes candidates better and it makes staffers better. The devious side strategy. [laughter] ms. Murray i would like to call that created. [laughter] mr. Woolson im sure that her creative sign strategy has been used elsewhere now. Another thing that struck me a little bit as reporter but especially as a staffs was this idea that candidates get better when they come here and they face people, especially in these smaller group. In 1999 when i first met george w. Bush, the idea that he had been a governor of texas man, that is an awfully big place. You have got to be a big campaign or to win in texas. Was that it would be better and as a candidate. I had that idea where they had that exceptional field operation. You would see that with candidates all along the way. I know that you would certainly see that would governor huckabee. I was really struck the first time i went to little rock. Kind of the similarities between arkansas and iowa. Counties,ze, rural and iowa just like arkansas. And the idea,the too, that we are such a language levelres the playing field. Whether you have a lot of money toyou dont, the candidate work in are able to do that and finally i think that level being field gives the opportunity for that 20yearold or 22yearold staffer to really shine. I remember a young guy with. Heir for a field staffer what do they do in cedar rapids . I recommended this young guy. He was on cnn. The National Staff was like this guys a breakout. After george w. Bush went to the white house, scott became the press secretary. Im still here in my office, waiting tuesday, wednesday is going to be quiet. [applause] you know, just that opportunity can those young staffers really make a name for themselves here is another great thing about iowa. If i could just mentioned, the political staffers its a whole industry. There are two of them. Inands who become staffers not insignificant numbers. Political people come from somewhere else. Of those staffers end up in Senate Offices and in congressional offices. In the white house. Havenk that some people actually done that. Im looking at somebody. There are several others. The spirit that you come out of the state with is actually spread around the nation. I would also say that having be the first caucus has a when he firstct board a steiner on the that may be how your real friend from iowa could possibly be helpful to him later. Coincidence. Strictly coincidence, im sure. I remember a big ethanol vote that i was very proud to be the manager of. We managed to pull off a glorious victory. 51 to 50. It was real close, to preserve the ethanol position. You know, we were very careful with that vote. We had to make sure that we didnt take yes or no until after a senator talked to a senator. Around,nd grassley went that might have helped us to little bit. The impact of the caucuses on iowa has changed the political culture of the state. The state is far more focused on politics. Has had af knowledge big impact. Intorankly it ricochets how people think about iowa. Mr. Bender . Ms. Murray absolutely, when i hear about other people complaining that the eyes outsize role of iowa in the president ial policies process, i can talk about what we have done. That barack obama would not be president if it would not for iowa, number one, but number two i have spent countless hours in many parts of the state where i would see people with a candidate, they would have a list and they would have a list namesd it would have the across the top and the issues down the side and they would check off what the candidates talk about. Islands really take the role seriously and want to know what the candidates are about. I think it we do take this very seriously. As an academic, having democrats and republicans on this panel, i cant not ask a about ways that each party might consider reforming or revising the rules. When i look at the democrats i wonder, why do democrats keep the equivalent rule . Its so arcane, hard to understand and interpret. Moving to the democratic system, you have a chance to realize your alignments and give a chance to coalesce around around stronger candidates. The reason i like the rate republican rules as a Campaign Manager is that a vote is a vote is a vote. In Ringgold County i need 55 votes because thats kind of what the turnout is going to be. I have to get to that 15 threshold. As a manager i wouldnt like that. I could see advantages to especially in a psycho like this cycle tos such an odd have so many candidates in the race. That opportunity to coalesce around folks. Weve talked about the opportunity to coalesce around iowa. Frankly this year it may 5 tickets out of iowa for all that i know. From my perspective i like the idea that we do it the way that know, one of the things that we did as i mentioned earlier was this idea proportionalave representation coming out of the caucuses into the county and beyond. Not very fondly, for that reason. I think the way that we do it is pretty done good. The reason the rules stay the same so the rules of the caucus level are almost identical, affectively, to the rules that they were in 1972, with few exceptions. We found out very quickly, when we talked about making the , therest rule change would always be this perception in some of the campaigns. Seeing that x candidate got 40 votes, why candidate got 30. Therefore you are for them . People are incredibly sensitive. By not changing the rules you avoid changing the possible rules of the conjecture of a game plan to help somebody else. Creating a real impediment to making changes in the rules. There is a whole set of dynamics 15 how that by way that we count it delegate equivalent becomes less and affects the turnout based on the weight of a particular caucus not on the number of the tenders, but on the strength of that precinct in the general election for democrats as a percentage of what it is for this first for the first state. That may make it we need some ,olitical analysis here to do but i have good reason to believe this and i discussed the demographic shifting in some but that moves the democrats a little bit towards the center, where they might otherwise be. Probably helpful with reference to the results in the end. Mr. Covington now you know why i was thinking about mark twain a week. That degree of depth of thinking about that process, as a Campaign Manager im someone who goes one vote, one vote, one vote. Rich having worked on this over the years talked about those bigger pictures. Move our voters or our message this way or that way. Addmurray i would like to that the eye with Democratic Party caucuses are probably the most little d democratic activity in the country when it comes to national politics. Isrichard described, this really the opportunity where everybody has a voice in the process. It might sound arcane and this and that, but it is Representative Democracy in your finest. Others all sorts of things that happen in a Democratic Caucus. People write it down on a scratch of paper, the issues they want to put on the party platform. If it has enough support all the way through, that scrap of paper could make it into the National Party platform. Thats nothing to sneeze at, its important. The other part of whats happening to the caucuses we elect precinct chairs. Those are the core functionaries of our political party. We elect those folks. There are a lot of other activities that happen as well. Mr. Covington thank you. I want to remind you, when we had our media panel we opened up for questions from the audience out there. I ask you to be patient. We will have a microphone so the you can participate. Feel like a kid in the candy store with this chance. O ask questions having watched the caucuses unfold over some 40 years now, it seems that there has developed a kind of dominic candidate strategy in terms of how to approach when to get involved and how to compete and so on. Remember 76, jerry brown decided to wait until the primaries came last, where he could do well. Jimmy carter got the march on him in terms of delegates. Giuliani decides to hold off and wait until florida. Is there a consensus within the parties about the best way to a partys nomination in terms of when and where to enter and put your emphasis . Mr. Woolson i think it all depends on where you stand. With a candidate like mike think it all depends on where you stand. With george bush, even with the assets he had, he waited until june i think it was early june when he made his first visit to iowa. His organization had been working for a long, long time raising money, doing all those sorts of things. In fact, we were on the ground doing work for him long before the announcement was made that he would get into the race. The candidates i have tended to work with have, either by necessity typically by known that they have to get into iowa early, and Start Building early. One of the things we have seen here in the past couple of inles the bush can see 2000, the inevitability that he would be the nominee. I think we have seen other candidates try to replicate that. Inevitability of tim for instance. [laughter] mr. Woolson typically, i would say, to some extent, this cycle, we saw Governor Walker rise in the cycle so quickly on a speech here. You are almost two years out, at this gathering in des moines, when one candidate gives a speech, and instantly rockets to the top of the polls. Early, i think, is better. As the example of giuliani not iowa, not New Hampshire, not florida. Reason. Irst for a it is because somebody decided it is important. That is why they are here. There are two issues. You go to iowa, or skip it. If you skip it, the nature of coming out of iowa, and you being completely out of that story, i think murders you. There is a whole set of professional political class, analysis of how iowa impacts new later, andight days what kind of waves people think is the pattern there. The idea that you start with zero in iowa, then compete in New Hampshire not very good. If not iowa or New Hampshire, for the democrats south carolina, really it just does not work. You have to do iowa. The amount of personal candidate time in iowa, that is an arguable point. Organizing in iowa early is probably really very, very, very valuable. Conversationve a knowmary when th we all mary. She is really the dynamo person that will make the call. Everyone likes mary. If you want mary, you have to really contact mary early. Your candidate may not spend too much time in iowa. Maybe a couple of Little Things here and there. If youre not on the ground early, trying to get the marys inasett, and the jones in carlisle, you are way behind. Core the party incredibly valuable. You want to grab those people early, if you can. You know who they are. They sell you the list. A lot more than what we charge the first time. You have the people who are there because of the group. Unions make up the larger share of that. The first group is big on the republican side. You have the people that these people are dragging their. Callers. The you dont want to miss them. You have to show up early. Ms. Murray the other thing i would add to that too is if you decide to skip iowa, it is not just about iowa. It is about the delegate selection process. If you are in a competitive president ial nomination race on the democratic side, and you dont understand caucuses, whether they are in iowa or another state, you will get a very difficult time getting the nomination. We have seen that in the past. Then, you realize you have to understand the caucuses better it is too late. You need to be in iowa and understand how to organize so you can win in the other states. The other thing i would like to add about the National Versus the iowa stuff, one other thing that is critically important we are iowans by virtue of spending so much time here, but i think so, we obviously love the caucuses. We love our candidate spending so much time here. You dont have to be first, but to have a successful caucus effort, you also have a National Campaign that supports that. It is vitally important to have both the National Level giving some praises to iowa, but doing big things in other places. They are doing all sorts of stuff. That is not actually supporting an understanding that iowa caucus and the needs on the ground. That is the other thing important to note. We are about to close up this session. The carter tim and campaign because they were the first ones to figure out you have to start at the beginning and go all the way through. [applause] backonvington we will be at about 10 after. In the meantime, enjoy your hoover cookies. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2015] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] next, on American History tv reporters give their perspective on the Iowa Caucuses by talking about their experiences covering the event. One of the reporters covered nine president ial caucus campaigns for the Des Moines Register newspaper. The Herbert Hoover president ial library hosted this 90 minute program. In our firstn panel, we were looking at the Iowa Caucuses from the inside out. Thatwe have some panelists will tell us about looking from the outside in. Joining us today are three panelists. David yup
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