Iowa Democrats start review of heavily criticized caucuses

Ed Tibbetts, Quad City Times

In the aftermath of heavy criticism of this year's caucuses, the Iowa Democratic Party said Friday it has picked former congressman and state party chairman Dave Nagle to lead a full evaluation of the process.

Nagle, a Waterloo lawyer elected to three terms in the U.S. House starting in 1987, is a longtime Democrat who has been involved in the caucuses for more than 30 years.

He said Friday he anticipates leading a broad-based panel that will take a hard look at the caucuses.

'I want to look specifically, but also broadly, at how as a state we're doing,” he said, adding he expects a report with recommendations to be issued perhaps by the end of this summer.

The Feb. 1 caucuses drew 171,000 Democrats, the second-highest total ever. And it was also the closest race the party has ever seen.

Hillary Clinton won over rival Bernie Sanders, but only by a quarter percentage point. The narrow margin, along with reports of crowded caucus sites, coin flips to determine the awarding of county delegates and demands that raw vote counts be released, have put pressure on the state party.

The party said Friday it has a long tradition of trying to improve the caucuses. In a statement, party Chairwoman Andy McGuire said the state takes being first in nation seriously.

'That's why the IDP has always made it a priority to listen to Iowans, learn from past experiences and look for ways to improve our caucus process while preserving what makes it special and unique to our state,” she said.

After complaints about the caucuses this year, the party reviewed the results from 14 precincts, confirming all but five had been reported correctly. Where there were errors, the changes to the final tally were minor. Caucuses were held at 1,681 precincts statewide.

The party said the full review committee would be formed in conjunction with the party's state central committee, 'our partner and allies.” Nagle, so far, is the only person identified.

Nagle said he expects to include people from the three Democratic presidential campaigns of Clinton, Sanders and former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley. He also wants to see broad geographical representation.

'The goal will be to enhance the process in whatever form it ends up taking,” he said.

Asked how he thought the caucuses wen, Nagle said, 'remarkably well, but it could have been better.”

He said he would not prejudge the idea of releasing raw vote totals, which some have demanded.

Unlike the Republican caucuses, the Democratic ones do not use individual votes to declare a winner. Instead, people at Democratic caucuses choose their candidate by dividing into preference groups, which after a period of realignment then feeds into a mathematical equation that awards 'state delegate equivalents” to candidates.

The party typically does not release tallies of preference groups. And some have worried that releasing raw vote totals might draw comparisons to a primary, thus presenting a potential conflict with New Hampshire, which zealously guards its first-in-the-nation primary status.

The party said additional details on the committee would be released in the coming weeks.