COUNCIL BLUFFS — The O’Malley contingent looked awkward. A cute young couple recently moved from Nebraska, a hunched-over retired school teacher, a 25-year-old Mexican American, a slightly dazed elderly hippie in a heavy purple hooded sweatshirt, a handsome middle-aged married couple, and a sharp-looking elderly lady named Lois.
While the dozens of Sanders supporters and Hillary backers manned desks and sat in chairs, the O’Malley group stood out in the open — eight Iowa Democrats clustered together.
Early in the night, a few Sanders backers and Clinton backers approached the O’Malleyites. Bespectacled Paige Hutchinson and Kyle McGinn, (described throughout the caucus room as “the cute couple”) were wooed by their neighbor — a young man named Buck — who was in the Bernie camp with his wife. Chris Stycket, a gray-haired woman fervently behind Hillary also came over to chat up Kyle and Paige.
Kyle and Paige favored O’Malley because he was a consistent liberal. “He hasn’t had to evolve on issues” like Sanders and Clinton have, she said. McGinn explicitly mentioned gay marriage. Hutchinson privately tipped her hand to me — she knew O’Malley would be unviable, and she would caucus for Hillary because “she can win in November.”
Democratic Party rules include a viability threshold. A candidate cannot win any delegates from a precinct unless he or she has 15 percent of the vote in that precinct. Pottawattamie’s 11th precinct had 171 voters, meaning it took 26 voters to be viable. O’Malley had 8.
First, the O’Malley crowd spoke of going out to the Bernie and Hillary voters to get another 18 supporters. Amidst this discussion Lois piped up: “I’m going to be practical: we’re not going to get 20 people.”
Lois told me she’s going to go to Sanders. “I’m very concerned about income inequality. He addresses it head on.” What about Hillary? “I don’t want to find skeletons in her closet in three months.”
Then the precinct chair announced that O’Malley is not viable. Then the lobbyists-for-a-night descended.
Taylor Sousa is the Mexican-American O’Malley backer, and he was clearly the toughest nut to crack of the bunch. “Hillary seems like she’s been around too long.” Bernie? “He only hits on income inequality.” Hillary backers pointed out all the Democratic senators who endorsed Hillary instead of Bernie. Sousa was unmoved.
“It’s very important to pick someone who can win,” Stycket argued to Lois. Bernie backer Dan Gulden mentioned Hillary’s vote for the Iraq war. Hilllary believed Hussein had WMD’s Stycket responded. “She was lied to!”
Chris and Steve Gorman, the handsome middle-aged couple peeled off to the Bernie camp. So did the hoodied hippie.
Paige Hutchinson marched off to Hillary as she had always intended.
Early in the night Kyle couldn’t name his second choice. He’s a good guy, though. He’s not the type to abandon his woman. He went to Hillary, too.
Lois had heard enough. She was sticking with Bernie for her second choice.
Karen Holmes, the retired school-teacher on whom Hillary’s forces spent the most energy, decided to abstain. So did Sousa. The count was complete.
Sanders won 101 to 68.
This precinct gets 16 delegates. The math means Bernie gets 10 and Hillary gets 6.
How did the O’Malley people matter?
Had the Clinton forces budged Holmes and Sousa, the delegate would have been 9 to 7 Sanders — a swing of two delegates. Same if they had won over the Gormans, or even the somewhat bewildered elderly purple-clad hippie.
The lobbying of these amateur lobbyists, and the decisions of these retirees and cute couples meant a two-delegate swing.
Timothy P. Carney, The Washington Examiner’s senior political columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]. His column appears Tuesday and Thursday nights on washingtonexaminer.com.
