Iowa should have to earn its first-in-the-nation caucus

Steve Corbin, guest columnist

Many political pundits seriously question whether Iowa deserves to have the first shot at selecting the next president. Iowa's profile doesn't even come close to being representative of the U.S. Iowa's past caucus voter participation rate has been called pathetic. Let's examine the Hawkeye state's past caucus history.

Only 19 percent of card-carrying Republicans have participated in the past two Iowa caucuses; registered Democrats have averaged a 23 percent turnout. Worse yet, only 13 percent of Iowa's largest group of registered voters, No Party independents (36.3 percent), participated.

Iowa has a 'closed caucus,” which means that only declared Republicans and Democrats can participate in a caucus. No Party independents can only participate if they switch their registration to Democrat or Republican before caucusing for that party. The No Party independents can re-declare their independent status on the day after the caucus. What a mess Iowa's closed caucus has created. This may be the greatest form of hypocrisy in Iowa's voting process.

The results of Iowa's caucus should be questioned by the American public for its validity and reliability of selecting the next president.

To better understand why, let's reflect on the 2008 and 2012 Presidential races. Mike Huckabee won Iowa's Republican caucus in 2008. The voter numbers reveal that he attracted the support of a mere 2 percent of Iowa adults. You know what happened to the rest of Rev. Mike's 2008 campaign.

Rick Santorum, another Christian conservative Republican, won the 2012 Iowa caucuses. Christians flocked to the Iowa caucuses like it was a Wednesday night revival. You also know the rest of the story of Santorum's post-Iowa campaign.

Don't be surprised if Ted Cruz wins Iowa's Feb. 1 Republican caucus. While Iowa Christian conservatives may be the most dedicated Republicans to attend a caucus, they do not represent the majority of Iowa Republicans nor Republicans in the remaining 49 states.

If Iowa's Feb. 1 Republican and Democratic caucus attendance record doesn't improve, Iowa should no longer have the privilege of being the first-in-the-nation presidential selecting state.

The Democratic and Republican National Committees (DNC and RNC) must make all future caucus/primaries open to all registered voters regardless of their political preference.

DNC and RNC need to give their first-in-the-nation caucus/primary in 2020 to the state with the largest percentage of registered voters participating in the 2016 presidential caucus or primary election. The second election should go to the state with the second largest voter turnout, and so on, and determine the state-by-state order of the 2024 caucus/primary process using voter turnout in 2020.

Sadly, the 2020 presidential caucus/primary dance card will start on Jan. 21, 2017 one day after the 45th president is inaugurated. For future presidential selection, we must call on the DNC and RNC to enact significant caucus/primary reform.

' Steve Corbin is emeritus professor of marketing at the University of Northern Iowa. Comments: Steven.B.Corbin@gmail.com; 319-290-9779