Iowa Democrats backing former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley in Monday’s caucuses, many of whom had hoped that Vice President Joe Biden would enter the race, plan to use front-runners Hillary Clinton’s and Sen. Bernie Sanders’ fear of finishing second to ensure their candidate emerges from the evening “viable.”
Sharon Holle of Davenport, who was involved in the summer’s “draft Biden” movement and was a regional field organizer for him in the 2008 campaign, said she already has converted a lot of the Biden folks to O’Malley supporters.
“We’ve got our strategy and we think it’s going to work,” she said.
Part of that strategy involves convincing a few backers of Clinton or Sanders to join O’Malley’s cause if the former Baltimore mayor initially falls a few caucus-goers shy of the 15-percent viability threshold.
To win delegates at any individual caucus, a candidate must have the support of at least 15 percent of the room. If a candidate does not meet that minimum, or can’t peel off enough of someone else’s backers to reach it, his or her people must then “vote” for a candidate who does.
Holle said she’s confident that O’Malley will prove viable in enough caucuses to finish much stronger in Iowa than polls going into Monday night indicated. But if he does struggle, his backers will use the argument to Sanders supporters that they are better off helping O’Malley achieve viability than risk seeing his people join the Clinton camp — thereby giving her more delegates — and vice versa.
Thomas Auge, a precinct captain in Dubuque, said he feels good about O’Malley reaching viability in his caucus but agreed that if his team falls a few heads short, O’Malley leaders will ask the Sanders’ team to release a few caucus-goers to help them hit the mark.
“I think we’re going to surprise a lot of people,” said the Loras College freshman, who decided to back O’Malley after Biden decided not to seek the presidency for the third time.
“I think he’s going to stay in the race,” said Holle, who added that many Iowans are entering the caucuses undecided, she said.
And “a lot of them don’t like the baggage Clinton carries and a lot of them don’t think that Bernie can deliver what he’s promising,” she said of why O’Malley will out-perform the pundits Monday night.
Denise Dolan, auditor of Dubuque County, said she has some concerns about his viability but will employ the same argument outlined by Holle and Auge to move feet to O’Malley’s corner.
“If O’Malley is not viable, the Hillary and Bernie people are going to come to us” to join them “and I’m going to be arguing the other way,” she said, adding that Clinton backers might come to O’Malley aid.
Dolan, too, originally wanted Biden to enter the race.
“He kinda reminds me of Joe Biden; and I’ve always liked Joe Biden,” said Jim Stolley, a former Davenport alderman. “I think he really has a political future,” Stolley said of O’Malley, noting that like himself, O’Malley once served on a city council. “He’s a comer; he’s energetic; he has great ideas. I hope I live long enough to vote for him for president,” said the 80-year-old retired Marine.
