Candidates have their favorite places to campaign in Iowa

DES MOINES — A little while back, Dave Panther learned a great marketing strategy.

And Eric Woolson just needed a simple and cost-efficient place to bring his candidate.

Because of those simple needs, Hamburg Inn No. 2 in Iowa City and Pizza Ranch locations across the state are now known for being popular venues for presidential candidates to visit while campaigning for Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses, where retail politicking is the way to voters' hearts.

'It was just one of those things,' Woolson said.

It was Woolson who, during the 2008 campaign, started taking his candidate, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, to various Pizza Ranch restaurants throughout the state.

Woolson found those venues to be just the right size and relatively cheap to rent a room, and they had the right kind of Iowa voters.

Huckabee won the 2008 Iowa GOP caucus.

'When you're one person and you're staffing everything and scheduling everything yourself, it was just one of those things where I figured out fairly quickly that the room was the right size, it was usually available, and it was usually easy to pick up the phone and call the Pizza Ranch in whatever town we were campaigning,' Woolson said.

Now, any number of presidential candidates frequently visit Pizza Ranch locations on the campaign trail. Huckabee still goes there, and Rick Santorum — who won the 2012 Iowa Republican caucus — has frequented the buffet-style restaurants.

Every 2012 Republican candidate except Mitt Romney appeared at a Pizza Ranch at least once.

'Pizza Ranch has a good feel for middle America,' Woolson said. 'They have a terrific target audience, and they're in the right-sized communities …

that candidates like to campaign in.

'It's a good fit. It's just become known, I think, that if a candidate's in town, they just might be at a Pizza Ranch.'

Coffee beans

In 2003, Dave Panther read in a marketing newsletter about a southwestern U.S. Mexican restaurant that conducted a presidential poll using pinto beans.

Hoping to capitalize on interest in the Iowa caucuses, Panther started a coffee-bean poll at his Iowa City restaurant, the Hamburg Inn.

After a little marketing and media exposure, candidates started showing interest. The Hamburg Inn since then has become a common place for candidates to visit.

'I call it the gift that keeps on giving because it has put us on the national and on the international political map,' Panther said. 'It's been good for candidates and good for local voters, too.'

In the Hamburg Inn's coffee-bean caucus, patrons place a coffee bean in a jar labeled with their favorite candidate.

Past candidates to visit the Hamburg Inn include President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, both former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State and current candidate Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Romney and Michele Bachmann.

'When we started, we had to work a little harder to catch (candidates') attention, but as we became more successful in attracting media and being a good venue for different candidates, (they realized) that it was a good stop for them,' Panther said.

Location, location, location

Julie Eckhardt has been a manager at the Machine Shed restaurant in the Des Moines suburb of Urbandale for 10 years. For as long as she's been around, presidential candidates have been visiting her restaurant.

Eckhardt is not certain why, but she thinks the venue's size helps — its banquet room can fit roughly 150 people. Another plus is its location, as it sits right near the intersection of two interstate highways, I-80 and I-35.

Huckabee, Santorum, Marco Rubio, Bobby Jindal and Ted Cruz have held events at the Urbandale Machine Shed this year.

Eckhardt said that in 2008, Biden poured coffee there during a Thanksgiving fundraiser.

'They just want to come here and shake hands and kiss babies,' she said.