THE IOWA CAUCUS

HISTORY

• Iowa’s po- litical parties have used caucuses—which at their core are simply party meetings—to organize themselves since before Iowa statehood in 1846. With the exception of 1916, when a primary was employed but aban- doned due to low turnout and high cost (Boots 1920), the caucuses have also been Iowa’s starting point for choosing delegates to the national party conventions.2 For most of that time, little outside attention was paid—and to be fair, little attention was paid by Iowans themselves.

INFO.

• The main reason is that caucuses were not invented as a presidential nomination system; instead, they have always been about organizing political parties at the precinct level.
• The caucus process allows candidate representatives to attempt to persuade undecided caucus-goers at the last minute, in many cases even delivering impassioned speeches before the group comes together for a vote.

SITES

• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/03/what-is-a-caucus-iowa-2012_n_11810...
• http://www.whyiowa.org/Why%20Iowa%20Chapter%203.pdf