Time for big changes to the Iowa caucuses?

DES MOINES - Results that didn't come in until early the next morning and discoveries of reporting errors in the days that followed have sparked calls for wholesale changes in Iowa's Democratic caucuses.

But some county-level party leaders think the fuss over the Feb. 1 caucuses is overblown and it would be a mistake to throw out the Democrats' unique caucus format.

Others suggest the party must keep an open mind when performing a self-examination of its presidential nominating process.

The Feb. 1 Iowa Democratic caucuses featured the second-highest turnout - more than 171,000 - and a historically narrow margin: Hillary Clinton emerged on top by earning 49.8 percent of state delegate equivalents, while Bernie Sanders was close behind with 49.6 percent.

The Iowa Democratic Party drew scrutiny when those results arrived late - the party did not publish official results until 2:30 a.m., and even then they were incomplete. And some of the precinct results were contested.

The state party spent the ensuing days answering questions from the media and double-checking results from roughly a dozen of the state's 1,681 precincts. When the party completed its review, results were changed in five precincts, but it was not enough to alter the outcome.

Meantime, Iowa Democrats found themselves in the crosshairs of media opinion pieces. The Chicago Tribune wrote about Iowa's 'caucus mess” and the Boston Globe about the 'caucus debacle.” Some of the criticism was native, too - a Feb. 5 headline on a Des Moines Register editorial said, 'Something smells in the Democratic Party.”

Some Democrats, from both inside and outside Iowa, suggested in the wake of the caucus-night issues that the party should consider moving away from its caucus format of organizing and reshuffling people in a room and employ something more akin to a traditional ballot, as Iowa Republicans do in their caucuses.

Democratic county party leaders from across the state said in interviews since Feb. 1 that much of that criticism and calling for change amounted to overreaction. They acknowledged some precincts were overwhelmed by high turnout and inadequately prepared leaders.

But county officials said the vast majority of Democratic precinct caucuses were well-run and well-received.

'I think it's much ado about nothing,” Pat Sass, chairwoman of the Black Hawk County Democrats, said of the criticism.

Sass said she sees no need to change the Democratic caucus process. Nor does Penny Rosfjord, chairwoman of the Woodbury County Democrats. Rosfjord said the party will examine ways to improve the caucuses, as it does every four years. But she does not think dramatic changes are necessary.

'Going forward, I think we will definitely be looking at ways to improve the process, but I am not a person that really wants to throw the baby out with the bath water,” Rosfjord said. 'Definitely some improvements need to be made, and we'll go from there.”

Thom Hart, chairman of the Scott County Democrats, cautioned against making sweeping changes based on one year's caucuses.

'I think they need to be careful making changes in reaction to anything,” Hart said. 'I think the system worked well here (in Scott County) and generally works well across the state.”

Changing the Democratic caucus format may do more harm than good anyway, said Mike Gronstal, the Democratic Majority Leader of the Iowa Senate.

'If we do that, here's the challenge: The reality is it is unlikely the Democratic National Committee will continue to have Iowa go first, it's unlikely that New Hampshire - who have been partners with us for several decades on this - that they'll go along with us essentially being a primary,” Gronstal said. 'So if that's the reality, we can certainly move to that and have our vote in June at the primary and never have a presidential candidate visit our state.

'We have an outsized influence right now with this system. And those that suggest we move in a direction, that would probably mean we lost our first-in-the-nation status, and I think they're wrong.”

Kurt Meyer, Tri-Counties Democrats chairman, a group that covers Howard, Mitchell and Worth counties, said the party must consider its options when assessing the caucuses.

'Anyone that wants to do a massive overhaul, that's probably not going to happen. Yet if that's where the facts lead, then so be it,” Meyer said. 'A massive overhaul probably isn't the remedy. …

But if (the caucuses leave) people disenfranchised or frustrated or less likely to participate in this wonderful every-four-year process we have, then we are doing something wrong, and you have to be at least open” to changes.

Meyer said turnout is a significant challenge to the Democrats' caucus system, which was created as a party-building exercise conducted by small groups of friends and neighbors. Today, some precincts have hundreds of caucusgoers.

Self-analysis

Bret Nilles, chairman of the Linn County Democrats, thinks turnout was a big part of the issues that plagued this year's caucuses. He said some venues were not big enough to support the crowds that came out to caucus.

Some precincts would up conducting their caucus outside because space inside was insufficient.

'What we need with the caucuses is maybe a little bit more, better planning in terms of the facilities and how do we accommodate a caucus of 350 to 400 people as we experienced here in Cedar Rapids at some locations,” Nilles said. 'It's a matter of, those places where we had good accommodations, everything went fine.”

The issues occurred at the locations, he said, 'where we had tight quarters, where people weren't trained well enough to handle crowds of that size in space that wasn't available.”

Andy McGuire, chairwoman of the Iowa Democratic Party, said the party will conduct its usual self-analysis and determine what changes need to be made.

'After every caucus, the party goes through a self-examination process to discuss what went right and what can be improved upon,” McGuire said in a statement issued Feb. 7 with the final results. 'This process will continue this year, and in conjunction with our state central committee, our partners and our allies, I will convene a committee to ensure we can improve on our caucus process while preserving what makes it special.”

McGuire and Democrats know whatever moves the party makes, Iowa's first-in-the-nation status is at stake.

Meyer thinks Iowa Democrats are game to the task of making necessary changes to maintain that distinguished position.

'I believe that any party, out of necessity, evolves and changes and morphs and is reborn and is transformed many times over. You look back on things that happened one or two or three cycles ago, and you say, ‘I can't believe that is how we did things back then.' Because there's constant change,” Meyer said.

'Maybe it's tweaks, maybe the changes are more significant than that. At this point, it's fair to say I don't know, and I would be loathe to jump to the conclusion that tweaks are sufficient or a massive overhaul is required. I simply don't know. We haven't done the post-mortem …

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'But I also think if you're going to base your future improvements on facts rather than vague impressions or defensive reactions, you have to be open to the fact that we may need something a little more significant than just rearranging the deck chairs.”