Gazette Online, IA
08-22-07
Iowa gets campaign-free day
By Rod Boshart
The Gazette
rod.boshart@gazettecommunications.com
DES MOINES - An eerie quietude settled over Iowa on Wednesday when the
state experienced its first day in nearly two months without a presidential hopeful
in the state campaigning.
``Today's the first day that we have not had a presidential candidate in the state
since June 28,'' said Carrie Giddens, an Iowa Democratic Party official who
tracks campaign activities of both political parties in Iowa.
``It's been a marathon of an August,'' with the Iowa State Fair, the GOP Straw
Poll and two nationally televised candidate forums jammed into a two-week
window, she said.
``I think people are ready for a little bit of a breather, but I think they also are
excited for the traditional kickoff of Labor Day to get here.''
Iowa political veterans say the run-up to next January's first-in-the-nation precinct
caucuses is establishing a new high-water mark for campaigning, what with
candidates visiting, campaign ads airing and supporters soliciting commitments
earlier than in previous caucus seasons.
``It's just unbelievable, but the stakes are very high,'' said Steffen Schmidt, an
Iowa State University political science professor who's been tracking Iowa
politics since 1970.
``Since the stakes are so high, there's still a lot of interest among the highly
motivated people'' who likely will attend a local caucus, Schmidt said. Other
Iowans may be ``somewhat disinterested and getting a little bit of campaign 2008
fatigue.''
Drake University political scientist Arthur Sanders said he doesn't sense any
fatigue yet, ``although it is a risk when you start as early as they did that people
will get tired of not only getting the phone calls but making the phone calls.''
Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, a runner-up in the Iowa caucuses in
2004 and a candidate for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, said last
week the atmosphere is much more intense, far earlier, this time around in Iowa.
For activists like Sarah Swisher, a Democratic Party official who also focuses on
health-care issues, it has become impossible to track every candidate stop in
Iowa.
One recent weekend, she said, had 30 candidate events.
``I have never, ever seen such a flood of attention and presidential campaigning
in this state. It's remarkable,'' said Swisher, whose caucus experience dates back
to 1974. ``It's overwhelming sometimes to try to keep up with who's where and
what's going on.''
Steve Roberts, a GOP national committeeman from Des Moines, said Iowa and
other early states are getting lots of attention because of the ``front-end loading''
of the 2008 presidential nominating process.
``Everybody would like to make a statement in Iowa, follow that up in New
Hampshire and South Carolina, and then be off and running for Super Tuesday,''
he said, referring to Feb. 5 when two dozen states, including populous New York
and California, hold primaries or caucuses.
He said there may be some campaign fatigue in high-traffic locations that get
multiple campaign visits, but a presidential campaign visit still remains a novelty
and generates excitement in much of the state.
``I think Iowans kind of look forward to it,'' he said. ``We're kind of political
junkies, and we're getting our fix big time.''
Traditionally, ISU's Schmidt said, a campaign season has been followed by some
political downtime. But there was very little break in Iowa after the 2006 off-year
election, and the concept of a permanent campaign is increasingly becoming a
reality.
``I think that's very hard on citizens because politics is a temporary activity that's
a necessary evil,'' he said.
``Politics is not an end in itself,'' Schmidt added.
``It was never meant to be,'' Schmidt said. ``And the founding fathers, I think, are
probably horribly stressed from realizing that this is what the process has
degenerated into … more time spent on getting elected or re-elected than on
actually governing. But that's where we are.''