February 5, 2020

Status Report

February 4, 2020

Iowa Caucus results

From https://www.kcci.com/article/kcci-iowa-caucus-headquarters/30599739

President - First Alignment - Dem - First Alignment Caucus
0.23 % Precincts Reporting | 8% expected voteFeb. 03, 2020 5:11 pm EST
Party Name Votes Vote %
Dem
Klobuchar, Amy
50
27.78%
Dem
Buttigieg, Pete
41
22.78%
Dem
Biden, Joe
33
18.33%
Dem
Sanders, Bernie
31
17.22%
Dem
Warren, Elizabeth
20
11.11%
Dem
Yang, Andrew
3
1.67%
Dem
Steyer, Tom
2
1.11%
Dem
Gabbard, Tulsi
0
0%
Dem
Uncommitted
0
0%
Dem
Other
0
0%
Dem
Patrick, Deval
0
0%
Dem
Bloomberg, Michael
0
0%
Dem
Bennet, Michael
0
0%
Dem
Delaney, John
0
0%




IOWA
President - Final Alignment - Dem - Final Alignment Caucus
0.23 % Precincts Reporting | 8% expected voteFeb. 03, 2020 5:12 pm EST
Party Name Votes Vote %
Dem
Klobuchar, Amy
56
32%
Dem
Buttigieg, Pete
46
26.29%
Dem
Biden, Joe
33
18.86%
Dem
Sanders, Bernie
30
17.14%
Dem
Warren, Elizabeth
10
5.71%
Dem
Gabbard, Tulsi
0
0%
Dem
Yang, Andrew
0
0%
Dem
Uncommitted
0
0%
Dem
Other
0
0%
Dem
Patrick, Deval
0
0%
Dem
Bloomberg, Michael
0
0%
Dem
Steyer, Tom
0
0%
Dem
Bennet, Michael
0
0%
Dem
Delaney, John
0
0%

February 3, 2020

Iowa inundated with caucus ads: $70M already dropped on the state; $5.5M by a pro-Biden super PAC

Democratic and Republican campaigns and outside groups seeking to bolster, or hurt, candidates have spent or reserved almost $69 million in advertisements as of Friday, according to tracking firm Advertising Analytics.

In that crush of cash: A super PAC supporting former Vice President Joe Biden spent at least $2.3 million in the final two weeks, according to federal filings available Friday.

That political action committee, Unite the Country, has spent more than $5.5 million so far in the race — dwarfing the total independent expenditures to support or oppose the rest of the field, according to Federal Election Commission filings about independent expenditures targeting Iowa.

However, the pro-Biden PAC's spending, mostly on advertisements, production and mailers, is a drop in the bucket of overall spending on just television advertisements in Iowa markets so far this caucus cycle.

Read more: https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/elections/presidential/caucus/2020/02/02/iowa-caucus-advertising-spending-democrat-super-pac-backs-biden-5-5-million-iowan-caucus-lead-up/4612581002/

February 3, 2020

Pete Buttigieg asks likely caucusgoers: 'Are you ready to make history one more time?'

By Barbara Rodriguez


WATERLOO, Ia. — The way Pete Buttigieg tells it, the first time he visited Iowa was roughly 12 years ago to knock on doors for Barack Obama, when the nation’s first black president was making his bid for the White House.

“I saw Iowa change what America thought was possible on caucus night,” Buttigieg recalled Saturday as loud cheers emanated from the hundreds cramped inside an old ballroom in eastern Iowa.

Buttigieg also remembered, he continued, seeing from afar when the Iowa Supreme Court ruled in 2009 to uphold same-sex marriages. The consequential decision paved the way for a 2015 ruling in the U.S. Supreme Court.

“You all changed what people … thought was possible once again, and gave someone like me permission to believe that one day I would be able to wear this wedding ring,” Buttigieg told the crowd. “… You did that.”

Read more: https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/elections/presidential/caucus/2020/02/02/pete-buttigieg-leans-historic-nature-his-candidacy-final-hours-before-iowa-caucuses-south-bend-mayor/4639917002/

February 3, 2020

Vampire Weekend show for Sanders draws young fans, but not all feel the Bern

By Mesan Valley


CEDAR RAPIDS — It's just before 3 p.m. on the Saturday before the Iowa Caucus, and a dozen people are in line to see Sen. Bernie Sanders and Grammy-winning indie band Vampire Weekend in a last-hurrah rally.

The doors don't open for another two hours, and it's in the 30s. And the line is growing longer.

Only four of the first people lined up are Iowans eligible to caucus on Monday, and only two of them are committed to Sanders. The rest of the line lives out of state.

It seems Vampire Weekend is the big draw.

“I keep forgetting Bernie is going to be here,” said Kamryn Ryan, a student at Drake University in Des Moines, and part of a trio at the very front of the line. “I want to support Ezra (Koenig, lead singer of Vampire Weekend) supporting Bernie.”

Read more: https://qctimes.com/news/local/vampire-weekend-show-for-sanders-draws-young-fans-but-not/article_8b693c39-1d55-568d-a5d6-35b1798cffa7.html
(Quad City Times)

February 3, 2020

Critical fight looms: Bloomberg v. Democratic winner in Iowa

Within the Democrats' sprawling presidential contest is a smaller, yet critical competition among a handful of candidates jockeying to secure the backing of their party's establishment wing.

The first answers come Monday in the Iowa caucuses when voters begin sorting out the fight between progressive candidates, who are arguing for revolutionary change, and more moderate contenders, who many in the party believe have the better chance to defeat President Donald Trump in November.

Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar have been making the case in Iowa that they can assemble a broader coalition of voters in states essential to denying Trump's reelection. Waiting for them on the Super Tuesday primaries in March is Mike Bloomberg, an ideologically similar candidate who is skipping the early contests as he spends hundreds of millions of dollars in larger states.

Their candidacies are rooted in the idea of electability, and a belief that Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are proposing ideas that excite core Democratic voters with sweeping, expensive calls for structural change but would fall well short of winning an electoral majority against the Republican incumbent.

Read more: https://qctimes.com/critical-fight-looms-bloomberg-v-democratic-winner-in-iowa/article_1ff8fd55-49c7-58f5-b758-636f37ec2e2e.html
(Quad City Times)

February 3, 2020

Shooting for top-tier finish, Biden says he's best fit to win and unify

By Erin Murphy


DUBUQUE — In a packed field in Iowa, Joe Biden said he does not have to win — he just needs to remain on the leaderboard.

The Democratic presidential candidate and former vice president said during an interview Sunday that he does not need to win the Iowa caucuses in order for his campaign to remain viable moving on to other early-voting states; he just needs to avoid falling out of that top group.

“Just coming out in the top. Just coming out so it’s not like everybody’s at 20 (percent) and I’m at 5,” Biden said after his campaign event on the Clarke University campus here, one of two campaign stops he had scheduled for Sunday, otherwise known as caucus eve.

Iowa’s first-in-the-nation presidential precinct caucuses will be held Monday.

Read more: https://qconline.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/elections/shooting-for-top-tier-finish-biden-says-he-s-best/article_69b2b923-2c3d-5a65-8f39-b9df9fee6750.html
(Rock Island Dispatch-Argus)

February 3, 2020

The undecideds: Some Iowans finally picking a candidate, others remain undecided

By Erin Murphy


It’s crunch time, and Crystal Meier knows it.

The Iowa presidential precinct caucuses are Monday. So Meier, one of thousands of undecided Iowa Democrats, has narrowed her list down.

To four.

“There are more quality people and there are more people who have similar beliefs and goals, and that makes it more difficult,” she said.

In this second installment of a series on undecided caucus participants, Lee and Gazette reporters reconnected with the undecided Iowa Democrats to see whether they have chosen a candidate to support in the caucuses on Monday.

Some said they finally have made their choice.

But others, like Meier, remained on the fence with just a few days to go.

Read more: https://siouxcityjournal.com/news/state-and-regional/iowa/the-undecideds-some-iowans-finally-picking-a-candidate-others-remain/article_c1f1eedd-e1a8-5649-8b52-2ccac6734504.html
(Sioux City Journal)

February 3, 2020

Ahead of Iowa caucuses, Klobuchar makes last-minute pitch at Sioux City bar

By Mason Dockter


SIOUX CITY -- With the Iowa caucuses looming Monday, Sen. Amy Klobuchar came to the Marquee bar in downtown Sioux City Saturday afternoon to pitch her moderate brand of Democratic politics.

Like her fellow senators seeking the Democratic nomination -- Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Michael Bennet -- Klobuchar's campaign activities in Iowa largely stalled this week, with the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump occupying her time.

GOP senators have effectively blocked any further witnesses in Trump's impeachment, leaving acquittal the only likely outcome of the trial. Speaking on the impeachment matter, Klobuchar repeated a line she used at a recent Democratic debate in Des Moines.

"I said, 'If my Republican colleagues are afraid to even found out, about what the witnesses say, just four witnesses, they may as well give' -- this is what I said -- 'They may as well give the president a crown and a scepter,'" Klobuchar said. "Because they are basically making him the king. And they are not, they are not, following the laws of this country."

Read more: https://siouxcityjournal.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/ahead-of-iowa-caucuses-klobuchar-makes-last-minute-pitch-at/article_dc035dd9-26d8-5351-8d53-bbf74f8cd614.html
(Sioux City Journal)

February 3, 2020

Democrats make their closing arguments to Iowans

By Erin Murphy


ANKENY — The race is close, the end is near, and there is support still to be gained.

Seven of the Democrats hoping to be the next U.S. president spent as much time as they could this past week in Iowa making their closing arguments.

The candidates targeted in particular the thousands of undecided caucus participants — a Monmouth poll published last week showed roughly half of Iowa Democrats say they still could change their minds before Monday night’s caucuses.

With former vice president Joe Biden, former mayor Pete Buttigieg, and U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren continuing to lead the field and U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar appearing to surge, the competition for those undecided Iowans is fierce.

Read more: https://wcfcourier.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/democrats-make-their-closing-arguments-to-iowans/article_221a3812-251d-5abb-8bd3-953c6fba6def.html
(Waterloo Courier)