Thursday, January 19, 2012
The state GOP has certified that results changed in 131 Iowa precincts from Caucus night and missing ballots in eight precincts weren't counted. Some are upset by how the finish was managed, while others defend that human error is to be expected in a vote
- ELECTIONS
- B.A. Morelli, Ashlee Kieler, Deb Belt, Stephen Schmidt, Scott Raynor, Alison Gowans, Beth Dalbey, Anne Carothers-Kay, Jody Gifford, Megan VerHelst, and Jessica Miller
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Thursday, January 19, 2012
A messy, drawn-out finish to the Iowa Caucus appears to wrap up on Thursday with Rick Santorum leap-frogging Mitt Romney into first place after changes in 131 precincts and the exclusion of votes from the conclusion of eight precincts. After a Caucus night that would not end because of missing precincts, the certification process was equally problematic. Iowa Republican party officials say they don't trust the results from those precincts and they will never be certified. The final totals swung an eight-vote win for Romney on Caucus night to a 34-vote margin in favor of Santorum, according to a certified vote released on Thursday morning. The final tally gives the former Pennsylvania Senator Santorum a win with 29,839 ballots over 29,805 …
Some Iowa political insiders are not happy with the state party officials' handling of the 2012 Iowa Caucus, which ended with less than an earnest declaration of who won.
- ELECTIONS
- B.A. Morelli, Deb Belt, Megan VerHelst, Anne Carothers-Kay, Jessica Miller, Scott Raynor, Stephen Schmidt, Alison Gowans, Beth Dalbey, Jody Gifford, and Ashlee Kieler
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Thursday, January 19, 2012
A key Republican activist had perhaps the harshest criticism of Iowa GOP chairman Matt Strawn's handling of the 2012 Iowa Caucus, and he joins many others saying Iowa hurt its claim to first-in-the-nation status. "For Matt Strawn to refuse to declare a winner of the caucus, it makes the Caucus a joke," said Craig Robinson, the founder and editor-in-chief of the Iowa Republican and former political director overseeing the caucus for the state GOP. "He cast a huge cloud of suspicion over the caucus process." "Matt Strawn should step down as GOP chairman," he said. Robinson's main point of contention wasn't necessarily the eight uncounted precincts, it was Strawn's refusal to declare Rick Santorum the winner after the vote certification was …
Ankeny Republicans have different opinions on whether the Iowa GOP was the one to blame for the glitches and irregularities surrounding the closest Iowa Caucus race in the state's history.
While making it clear the Republican Party of Iowa could have done more to prevent the anomalies surrounding one of the closest Caucus races in Iowa history, Ankeny Republicans disagree on whether the Iowa GOP is to blame for the problems. The certified Iowa Caucus vote count released by the Republican Party of Iowa this morning places Rick Santorum in front of Mitt Romney, who was originally declared the winner. However, there were irregularities in 131 of the 1,774 precincts, and missing ballots in eight precincts weren't counted, according to state party officials. So is the Iowa GOP to blame? Jim Friedrich, an Ankeny resident and an Iowa Republican Senate staff member, said absolutely not. “The caucus is a straw poll and is a fair …
The state GOP has certified that results changed in 131 Iowa precincts from Caucus night and missing ballots in eight precincts weren't counted, meaning the true winner of the Iowa Caucus will never be known.
(Updated 1:09 p.m.) As the messy final vote count of the Iowa Caucus came in this morning, Iowa GOP Chairman Matt Strawn initially refused to declare a winner. He even said it's not his job (even though he stood before the nation at the end of the Iowa Caucus to declare Mitt Romney the winner). Strawn seems to be changing course and giving the nod to Rick Santorum, who came out on top of the certified, yet incomplete final vote. Still, it's something less then a definitive declaration of victory. "There is no question in our mind that the winner of the certified vote totals was Rick Santorum. Those are the numbers as certified during the two week required certification period," Strawn told reporters at a news conference at GOP …
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
The 2012 Iowa Caucus winner may never be known.
With the race for the GOP nomination for president full on in South Carolina with its primary on Saturday, the winner of the Iowa Caucus remains in doubt and may stay that way forever. Officials with the Republican Party of Iowa are in the final stages of certifying the Iowa Caucus vote. GOP Chairman Matt Strawn declared Mitt Romney the winner by eight votes over Rick Santorum in the early hours of Jan. 4. Counties have two weeks from the Iowa Caucus to certify their results. Strawn told the Des Moines Register the final paperwork is due by 5 p.m. Wednesday. The Iowa GOP may be able to announce the results of the certification process by Friday, Strawn told the Des Moines Register. However with most of the paperwork already in, Iowa GOP …
Thursday, January 5, 2012
One Iowa precinct says the votes were miscounted on Caucus night Tuesday. If so, it would make Rick Santorum the rightful winner of the first in the nation caucus for the GOP presidential nominee, they say.
First or second, at this point does it really make that much of a difference? On Tuesday night, well Wednesday morning actually, Mitt Romney walked away from the Iowa Caucus the winner by the narrowest of margins. A grand total of eight votes separated the former Massachusetts governor from runner-up Rick Santorum. But, gold and silver in this case is nearly interchangeable. Because the vote was so close, both candidates are expected to earn an equal number of Iowa delegates, which go towards deciding the nominee. Second seems to be treating Santorum pretty OK, too. He has brought in $2 million in the two days since the Iowa Caucuses. Still, there is the matter of bragging rights, and now it's even less clear who gets them. Des Moines TV …
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Unofficial cause of campaign's death: gaffes, staff churn and a fickle evangelical base that turned to someone else.
Michelle Bachman for President June 13, 2011 - January 4, 2012 Michele Bachmann’s downward spiral began almost the moment her campaign reached its zenith, with August’s victory in the Ames Straw Poll, a peculiarity of Iowa political pageantry that’s more Republican fundraiser than predictor of presidential preference. Her ascension to frontrunner status was fleeting, as a fickle Iowa electorate picked one, then another, favorite before finally settling Tuesday on Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum, separated by only eight votes, in the state’s celebrated presidential caucuses. But among the true believers in Bachmann’s campaign — Iowans for whom God doesn’t come before country, but is inextricably tied to it — hers was a holy cause, a crusade. …
Iowans picked polar opposite candidates, but will that hurt its standing as first-in-the-nation Caucus?
Iowans offered the nation something less than a clear path forward with Tuesday night’s razor-thin finish, which gave the rest of the country a vastly disparate trio of top candidates in the Iowa Caucus. Republican consultant Chris Drummond, who ran U.S. Sen. John McCain’s South Carolina campaign in 2008, told a Charleston, SC news station, “This is obviously step one for the process. For us here in South Carolina, it means absolutely nothing.” It raises an interesting question: Did Iowa hold up its end of the bargain as voters prepare to hit the polls in New Hampshire on Jan. 10 and in South Carolina on Jan. 21 and so on throughout the nation? Political watchers in Iowa and elsewhere backed Iowa’s first-in-the-nation performance this time…
The aftermath: Beginning in Ames and ending in Clinton County, the candidates hit the road.
Oh, Iowa, what a long, strange trip it’s been. Remember August? That was the unofficial beginning of the journey to the caucuses, marked by Michele Bachmann’s victory at the Iowa Straw Poll in Ames. The unofficial end of the campaign? Perhaps it was when Edith and Carolyn, two precious caucus volunteers out in Clinton County, provided CNN with the final Caucus tally after waking up their friend, another volunteer, to find out how many votes she had counted for each candidate. (If you weren't awake to hear them, you really ought to click here. Honestly.) The day after the caucuses, though, seems more like the real unofficial end. For the candidates, it’s the time for getting out of Iowa and into New Hampshire and South Carolina or, in …
Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, who had vowed Tuesday night to press on in her quest for the GOP presidential nomination, this morning announced she is ending her campaign. The Iowa native finished a distant sixth in the Caucuses Tuesday.
A prayerful Michele Bachmann ended her presidential campaign Wednesday morning, just hours after a crushing sixth-place finish in the Iowa Caucuses. The Iowa native failed to win even one of the state’s 99 counties, earning only 5 percent of the votes Tuesday. At a morning press conference at the Marriott in West Des Moines, Bachmann said she will not continue her campaign but has no regrets. "Last night the people of Iowa spoke with a clear voice; I have decided to stand aside. I believe we must rally around the party nominee," she said. "I will be forever grateful to this state and its people for launching us on this path." She did not take questions from the media after giving her speech this morning, and did not say which of the …
David Leonard
5:27 pm on Saturday, January 21, 2012
Maria, Iowa can't go to a primary because New Hampshire has rights to the first primary, and if they go first, there's no need for Iowa. more ›