This got past me, because Gov. Mitt Romney had worked so hard to cultivate his image as the one GOP front-runner who is spending time in Iowa. But according to the Washington Post’s candidate tracker, Romney has spent only three days in Iowa (all in mid-September) over the past two months. At some [...]

Democrats in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina, and Washington, DC, rushed to pressure their presidential candidates to pledge not to campaign in any other states planning to hold primaries before February 5. Republicans did not, perhaps knowing that such a pledge would hurt Rudy Giuliani, the Republican candidate most likely to win a [...]

New poll numbers from the American Research Group reveal significant improvement in former Gov. Mike Huckabee’s standing in Iowa, bouncing to 14% support after the Iowa Republican Straw Poll earlier this month.  ARG’s polling indicated that Huckabee had the support of only 1% of Iowa Republican caucus-goers last month.
While the ARG’s likely caucus-goer screen is [...]

The primacy of the Iowa Caucuses is Chet Culver’s top priority, but (1) should it be? And (2) does it matter what Culver’s priorities are?
On the first question: being chronologically first isn’t sufficient; and, taken to the extreme, it could be a bad thing. Idaho could decide to hold its primary tomorrow, and [...]

Most media types don’t get the Ames Straw Poll in the least. They describe it as an election, as a test of candidate strength, as a predictor of how the Iowa Caucuses would turn out if they were held today, etc. Almost every detail you have heard about it on cable news is [...]

About a month ago, I heard Ron Paul’s campaign staff pledge that they would get 10,000 of their supporters to the Ames Straw Poll during their alternative event next to the ICA/ITR Republican Candidates Forum, from which Paul was excluded. Then it was revealed — on Paul’s own official Straw Poll site — that [...]