Sunday, May 11, 2008
Bush and Gore coast, Keyes has his moment and Hatch looks for an escape.
Jan 25, 2000 | Something no one ever told me about caucuses is that they can be rather stinky. If turnout at the precinct is high, the able-bodied voters of Iowa -- often clad in long johns, flannels, sweaters and beefy winter coats; packed into small, overheated rooms in schools and municipal centers; engaged in heated debates about candidates -- are prone to sweat. A lot.
But Vice President Al Gore and Texas Gov. George W. Bush never broke a sweat as they coasted to victory, as expected, in the Democratic and Republican caucus votes Monday night in the first round of ballots counted in Decision 2000.
Gore's showing -- 66 percent to former Sen. Bill Bradley's 33 percent -- was heralded as a decisive ass-stomping, a testimony both to the Gore machine and a fairly limp effort by the former New York Knick.
Bush, with 41 percent, won solidly, too -- by 4 points more than the previous record achieved by a candidate in a heavily contested Iowa caucus. But his sails were somewhat de-winded by the strong showing of challenger Steve Forbes, with 30 percent, and the fact that the combined totals of Forbes and surprising bronze-medal winner Alan Keyes, with 14 percent, surpassed Bush's total.
With 9 percent, Gary Bauer finished fourth, beating Arizona Sen. John McCain, who got 5 percent without campaigning in the state. Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch won an astoundingly pathetic 1 percent, and may well be the next to leave the race.
Arguing that a win is a win, a jubilant Bush nonetheless took the stage at the downtown Marriott after his victory was called and thanked his supporters for his first official win in his express train from the governor's mansion on Colorado Street in Austin, Texas, to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
"Seven months ago I came to Iowa on a plane dubbed 'great expectations,'" Bush said. "Tonight, Iowa has exceeded them. Tonight marks the beginning of the end of the Clinton era."
At Valley High School in West Des Moines, seven Democratic caucuses and two Republican ones brought out hundreds of voters from the relatively wealthy, highly educated suburban enclave.
Standing outside the GOP caucuses were three Bush supporters who Saturday flew in from Dallas on their own dime. Dan Branch, a lawyer; Barbara Harris, a homemaker; and Bill Ceverha, a political consultant, came in to share the love they feel for their governor, making "Get-Out-the-Vote" phone calls and distributing literature outside the precincts. All three have donated to Bush the maximum amount of cash allowable by law. Election laws allow them to spend $1,000 apiece on travel, which they all plan to do.
"We had a group that came up," said Branch. "Many of us are good friends with them [the Bushes] and therefore feel passionately about his campaign. A lot of people came up looking for things to do, since there's nothing to do in Texas to help the governor right now."
"And we wanted to be in Iowa in the winter," joked Ceverha.
Their plane tickets weren't spent in vain; the two Valley High Republican caucuses generally mirrored the statewide results.
In the school auditorium, 16-year precinct chairman Jim Davis opened the floors to two-minute speeches for candidates. Steve McCollough told the crowd of roughly 250 that his man, Bush, "would make an excellent president and I think he has the best chance of being elected." He met Bush at a rally, McCollough said. "It was really, really cool."
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