The Iowa Precinct Caucuses: The Making of a Media Event, Third Edition

7. The 1984 Caucuses: The Kickoff of a Front-Loaded Season

Chapter 7 The 1984 Calclses: The Kickoff of afront-loaded Season IN ADDITION TO shortening the presidential primary season, the Hunt Commission proposals had the unintended consequence of contributing to the front-loading of the 1984 primary and caucus calendar . Anumber of states, anxious to share the influence and attention gainedbyIowa and other states that hold earlycontests and aware that Iowa was now limited in terms of how early it might hold caucuses , moved their electoral events closer to the beginning of the nominating season. Seventeen states scheduled primary elections or caucuses in the first twenty-two days ofthe 1984 primary period (CQ Dec. 10, 1983, 2605). Other Hunt Commission proposals accepted by the Democratic National Committee gave states greater flexibility in selecting delegates to the national convention. They could hold primary elections, caucuses, or a combination of the two. The greater flexibility and the perceived harmful effects ofprimary elections on state party organizations led to a resurgence of the caucus and convention system in 1984. Iowa had demonstrated that its early caucus system was an excellent party-building mechanism, and other state parties moved in that direction. Whereas thirty-five states selected 72 percent of the delegates to the 1980 Democratic National Convention by primary election , only twenty-three states (and the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico) used primaries to select 54 percent of the 1984 delegates (Pomper 1985, 9). Precaucus Activity Some wondered whether the Iowa precinct caucuses would be lost in the shuffle, with so many states holding early caucuses and primaries in 1984. Others, like Senator John Glenn, thought the front-loading 109 110 Chapter 7 The 1984 Caucuses made Iowa and New Hampshire even more important, since successful candidates would get a quick start in what could be a very short race, and there would be very little time to recover from defeats in those states (Yepsen 1983a, llA). A definitive answer as to the impact of front-loading would not be available until much later, but early signs indicated that presidential candidates were again taking the Iowa caucuses very seriously. A 1982 national magazine article began, "Believe it or not, the 1984 presidential race is already on" in Iowa. The story went on to describe visits by seven Democratic hopefuls seeking support for a nOminating event still nearly two years away (Newsweek May 24, 1982, 31). It began to appear that the time spent by Iowa Democrats in defending their caucuses' first-in-the-nation status had been well worth the effort. By 1984 the precinct caucuses had been institutionalized as a significant part of the primary and caucus schedule. The 1980 efforts by Carter, Kennedy, and Bush demonstrated that a strong organization was necessary to compete in the precinct caucuses now that Iowa was a well-publicized event in the presidential nominating process. It would no longer be possible for a candidate to put together an organization quietly and surprise the media, as McGovern had done in 1972 and as Carter had done to a lesser degree in 1976. To do well in Iowa would require a major organizational effort, but with New Hampshire a week later and Super Tuesday and its ten state delegate selection events only three weeks after the caucuses, candidate efforts could not be concentrated in the state, as they had been when several weeks separated Iowa and New Hampshire. TheD~oaaticCampaign Visits by Democratic presidential candidates were common in Iowa from 1982 to 1984 as the candidates worked to enlist supporters and develop an organization capable ofidentifying and turning out potential caucus supporters. Most of the Democratic hopefuls made strong efforts and spent large sums ofmoney and much energypursuing support from the caucuses, but it was no contest from the start. Minnesota native WalterMondale was well known in Iowa. On campaign trips to the state, he played on his close ties to Iowa by referring to himself as "Iowa's third senator," or, when criticizing Republican The Kickoff of aFront-Loaded Season 111 senators Charles Grassley and Roger Jepsen on a visit to Drake University, as "Iowa's only senator." Mondale opened a Des Moines campaign headquarters in early 1983, and by the end of the year there were twenty-two full-time employees and a large budget, computers, phone banks, district offices, and hundreds ofvolunteers. His staff's systematic approach to organization building included personally contacting 2500 party activists, canvasing all those who had...