Ten months before caucuses, Iowa in campaign mode

The Hawkeye State's status has grown as bigger states move up their primaries.

from the March 16, 2007 edition

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In many cases, the crowds – especially for events with bigger names like Senator Clinton, Sen. John McCain, and Senator Obama – have been much larger than Iowa is used to. Around 6,000 came to an Iowa State University stadium last month to hear Obama speak.

Still, to win, even the biggest stars are eventually going to have to appear in people's homes along with ballrooms and hotels, say most Iowa observers, if for nothing more than the PR value of showing they don't mind doing so.

"We're known for retail politics," explains Jean Hartwell, a member of the state's Democratic Central Committee attending the Edwards event. "You have to come and press the flesh."

Still, a few candidates are already finding less travel-heavy ways to expose themselves to caucus-goers. Mr. Romney has started a few television ads already – a surprisingly early move in a state where TV traditionally has less impact than word-of-mouth and personal appearances – and Edwards recently mailed 70,000 DVDs to Iowa homes that tout his universal healthcare plan.

With the popular former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack dropping out of the race, Edwards is also the first to try overtly to capitalize on his absence, announcing endorsements by more than 100 former Vilsack supporters.

Still, many Iowans say they're going to wait and get a look at all the candidates before making a call. And experts note that even the most well-run polls have little predictive power, especially in a state that relies on people to show up at a caucus location and devote a substantial amount of time to taking part.

"I see these polls – Giuliani is here and McCain is here and this is where Romney's at. To me, here in Iowa, they're generally useless," says Chuck Laudner, executive director for the Iowa State Republican Party. "People aren't making up their mind yet." Instead, he says, "they have in their pocket at any given time the list of questions they want to ask these candidates when they get their chance."

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