NewsMax Wires
Monday, Jan. 19, 2004

In the closest Iowa contest since 1988, former Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont, Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri and Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts fought for the state's 45 delegates out of 2,162 needed to claim the nomination - and for momentum in New Hampshire's primary eight days later.

Hours before caucuses opened in 1,993 precincts, officials said Rep. Dennis Kucinich had agreed to ask supporters to swing behind Edwards in cases where they lacked the numbers to qualify for delegates. These aides said Edwards would urge his supporters to back Kucinich in cases where they lacked the necessary numbers.

Kucinich campaign spokesman David Swanson stressed that the Ohio congressman was remaining in the race. The agreement with the Edwards campaign was a blow to Gephardt, who had hoped to win Kucinich supporters.

"We all face the same test here," Gephardt said before voting began. "Everybody's got to do well or win."

Dean, calling himself "ripping, roaring, ready to go," hoped to retain his credentials as front-runner for the nomination even as polls in Iowa showed a four-way statistical tie.

"We are not going to be stopped until the right wing is out of power," Dean told campaign workers jammed into his state headquarters Monday morning. "I think we're going to win. No matter what happens, we're going to have more to do."

Iowa's caucuses, a neighbor-debating-neighbor staple of American politics, begin the march to the Democratic presidential convention in Boston and the fall campaign against President Bush.

Dean needs a victory to quiet questions about his viability. Gephardt, winner of the 1988 caucuses, would be unlikely to continue his campaign if defeated here.

Expectations were lower for Edwards and Kerry, but they need a solid showing to gain momentum for the New Hampshire primary and the seven-state follow-up Feb. 3.

A close finish might muddle the race as the eight-person field heads to New Hampshire, where retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark and Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman awaited. As the contest tightened in Iowa in recent days, Democrats began expressing fears that two or more candidates could lock into a longer-than-expected nomination fight that would benefit Bush.

Dean entered the year a clear front-runner but lost his lead in Iowa and saw it shrink in New Hampshire after a tumultuous two weeks. Stung by criticism of his record on race relations, Medicare and trade, Dean said a week ago he was tired of being the party's "pin cushion," and suddenly looked weak to voters drawn to his blustery image.

Gephardt gambled a few days later with an ad highly critical of Dean. The front-runner's approval rating dropped. Voters who started second-guessing Dean drifted to Edwards or Kerry. Suddenly, it was a four-way race.

Political ads seemed to squeeze out entertainment shows on TV. Four pricey get-out-the-vote operations sent thousands of volunteers and professional organizers to knock on doors, mail fliers, poll voters and train precinct captains in the art of caucus politics.

At 6 p.m. CST, in schools, living rooms and other caucus sites, tens of thousands of Iowans were coming out of the icy cold and splitting into groups _ Edwards voters here, Gephardt people there, Kerry folks in the back and Dean backers along the wall. Kucinich was expected to get a significant showing at a few caucuses.

Their numbers were to be counted, then recounted after the campaigns competed neighbor-by-neighbor for voters who remained undecided or became free agents because their candidates didn't get enough votes to go forward.

In their caucuses, local Democrats elect county convention delegates, reflecting their presidential preferences, then discuss platform issues and elect precinct leaders. The process favors candidates with broad organizations that reach into each of the state's 99 counties.

Gephardt had hundreds of professional union organizers working the streets while Dean had thousands of volunteers, many of them political novices drawn to his campaign through the Internet and traveling to Iowa at their own expense, fed from vending machines and housed in remote cabins.

Although Dean used blunt language and you-have-the-power rhetoric to fire up an anti-war, antiestablishment base, many of his youthful organizers in Iowa looked more for adventure than a fight.

Gephardt was upbeat and calm on the campaign trail, but his blue-collar foot soldiers were motivated by fear and anger in an unsteady economy.

Kerry and Edwards had solid organizations, but nothing to match Dean or Gephardt. They hoped momentum would override the disadvantage.

After Iowa and New Hampshire, Democrats turn their attention to an unprecedented rush of primaries starting Feb. 3 with South Carolina, New Mexico, Arizona, Oklahoma, Missouri, Delaware and North Dakota. Democratic leaders designed the front-loaded calendar in hopes of having a presumptive nominee by mid-March.

Most candidates see Iowa as a tempting jumping-off point.

Jimmy Carter was a little-known Georgia governor when his 1976 Iowa campaign catapulted him onto the national scene and put the caucuses on the political map.

Since then, Iowa has been an important but often unreliable barometer of presidential mettle.

For every eventual nominee who has won Iowa - Republican Bob Dole in 1996 and Democrat Walter Mondale in 1984 - the state has yielded many more surprises.

Ronald Reagan lost in 1980, and his foe, George H.W. Bush, declared he had "Big Mo" heading into New Hampshire. Bush's momentum dissipated in a high-stakes debate there, and Reagan went on to the nomination.

Al Gore, heading for a last-place finish in Iowa in 1988, left the state to campaign elsewhere, dismissing the caucus as "a real arcane procedure that produces crazy results." Twelve years later, Gore returned as vice president to beat rival Bill Bradley and go on to the nomination.

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