Behind Closed Doors
Kid Reporters locked in with Iowa caucus goers. What happens next?
Precinct Chairwoman Judy Wittkop explains the caucus rules to candidate supporters on Thursday, January 3, 2008, in Le Mars, Iowa. (Photo: ©Dave Weaver/AP Images)
At 7 p.m., the doors were locked, and the Scholastic Kids Press Corps was on the inside. It was the night of the 2008 Iowa caucuses and, a team of eight Kid Reporters tracked the action from five different precincts. Who would Iowa voters choose as their presidential nominees? The time for the big decisions had come.
The process started with instructions from a precinct captain who split caucus-goers into groups.Ã?
At the Webster Township Precinct 1 caucus, supporters for Barack Obama lined one wall, while John Edwards supporters lined the other. Hillary Clinton voters took the middle table.
Trouble started right away. Webster Township Precinct 1 could only send two delegates to the state convention. They had three viable candidate groups. Within 30 minutes, all but four of the Clinton supporters had moved into either the Obama or Edwards camps. The four who refused to change their support left disappointed.
The whole process was efficient and friendly. Precinct chair Angela Connolly, who has been caucusing for many years, said she thought everything went well.
"We have had the largest turn out that we've had at our precinct," she told Scholastic News. "They knew what they had to do tonight, and they did it. We had a lot of first-time caucus-goers [and]. . . a lot of first-time registered voters."
A Rowdy Caucus
On the other side of the divider at Hoover High School, where four precincts met to caucus, the process was not quite as pleasant, although there were no big fights.
Des Moines Precinct 9 had twice the crowd as its neighbor. They had to choose four delegates from among the 150 people who attended. When they broke into groups, Obama supporters took up nearly half the room.
Clinton supporters were clearly the second largest group, with Edwards a close third. Chris Dodd, Joe Biden, and Bill Richardson all had a handful of supporters, but needed 19 each to remain viable.
An aggressive Edwards precinct captain started on two Dodd supporters sitting near the Edwards huddle. An Obama supporter quickly joined in, arguing for the women to come over to their side of the room. Soon the Dodd supporters were outnumbered with four people arguing over them. One went to Edwards, one to Obama.
The Edwards precinct captain then went over to the Clinton group to see if anyone had second thoughts. That's when things turned ugly. The Clinton supporters shooed her away after she offended one of them. When she approached the Obama group, they began to chant: "O-Bama-A! O-Bama-A!"
Chants of "Hill-A-Ry! Hill-A-Ry! Hill-A-Ry!" followed, but the older and smaller Clinton crowd soon settled down.
Of the four delegates, two went to Obama, and one each went to Edwards and Clinton.
Wright Elementary
Wright Elementary (where seven of the 13 Kid Reporters in Iowa attend the fifth grade) also caucused with 129 people.
Edwards ended up the big winner because he was the second choice for the people supporting second-tier candidates like Biden, Dodd, and Richardson. The big three split the four delegates from this precinct with Edwards claiming two, Clinton one, and Obama one.
The action here took only about 30 minutes�a quick wrap up of months of hard work and campaigning.
Back at Hoover High, caucus volunteers were tearing down posters and already reminiscing over the Election 2008 event.
"I'm going to miss the excitement," Connolly told Scholastic News.Ã? "This has been history-making. I'll be sad to see everybody leave town, but I'm sure they are heading to New Hampshire."
Scholastic News also will be in New Hampshire this coming weekend through the election on Tuesday. Be sure to check back for first hand reports on all the action.
MORE FROM KID REPORTERS IN IOWA
Click here for a report from Kid Reporter Sydney Rieckhoff who covered a caucus in Cedar Rapids.
WHO DO YOU SUPPORT FOR PRESIDENT?
Vote in our latest Scholastic News Online Mock Primary Poll.
Scholastic Kid Reporters are on the campaign trail. Keep up with the latest caucus and primary news in this special report.
Ronald Lee DeMoss is a member of the Scholastic Kids Press Corps.
Marilyn C. Lo is a member of the Scholastic Kids Press Corps.
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