IOWA 7 Electoral Votes
Given the closeness of the state in 2000, there were efforts to register new voters.  The New Voters Project, a nonpartisan project of the state PIRG's focusing on 18- to 24- year olds, made Iowa one of its six core states.  The New Voters Project was active in Dubuque, Johnson, Linn and Polk Counties and reported registering 37,153 18- to 30-year olds.  Looking at the registration statistics on Election Day, Democrats made slight gains as compared to 2000; in 2000 Republicans had a 32.05 percent to 30.71 percent margin with 37.23 percent No Party whereas the 2004 figures showed Republicans had 30.89 percent to 30.50 percent with 38.61 percent No Party.

Republicans laid the groundwork for their success early on, doing lots of phone banking and identifying supporters so that by October 2004 there was a solid volunteer base ready to engage.  These volunteers had been practicing and had very specific goals.  Networks of get-out-the-vote callers went to work; using hundreds and hundreds of cell phones they were able to set up phone banks any where, any time.  In the Friday, Saturday and Sunday before the election volunteers made at least 700,000 contacts going door to door and using phones.  For the most part these were neighbors contacting neighbors, not some person from out of state knocking at the door or doing the calling.  Further, President Bush's frequent visits to the state generated a lot of earned media.

On Election Day the work paid off as the Bush campaign "did better almost everywhere."  Johnson County (Iowa City) provided one positive for the Democrats, but in almost every county west of Linn County the Bush ticket improved upon its margins.  While Kerry improved upon Gore's showing in the major urban areas in many states,  in Iowa Bush actually trimmed the margin in Polk County (Des Moines).

The Kerry campaign had help from America Coming Together, which reported its canvassers knocked on some 560,000 doors and had conversations with 266,000 people in the period from June through Election Day, in addition to running an aggressive absentee ballot program that focused on very infrequent voters.

However, the Democratic effort in Iowa suffered from a number of problems, which given Bush's 10,059 vote (0.67 percentage point) margin may well have cost the Kerry the state.  Beyond the shortcomings that played out on the national level, such as Kerry's remark on the $87 billion supplemental for Iraq and campaign's slow response to the Swift Boat attacks, the Democratic campaign in Iowa seemed to have more than its share of internal tension.  A Democratic operative identified some of the problems:

The Kerry folks always assumed he was going to get 90% of the D's and 66% of the I's.  The D's were unexcited and the I's broke about 50%.  The Kerry folks waited too long to respond to this "soft" support and never really concentrated their message on Independents.  Even in the face of our door to door Canvass which showed that he was losing Independents, the Kerry folks depended too much on their computer driven data.

The national folks underestimated the votes to win in Iowa.  They used some fancy new computer formula instead of using Iowans' assessments and so blew their votes to win by under-targeting.

The Kerry operation was sluggish at response and couldn't get their act together to disperse resources because there were way too many chiefs in the mix.

The Kerry folks didn't trust anyone else to be on their calls.  If you didn't work for Kerry, or support him in the caucuses, you weren't privy to inside information.

The operative summed up, "All in all, it was a mess here in Iowa."

Democrats did pick up seats in both Houses of the General Assembly, going from 46-54 to 49-51 in the House and from 21-29 to 25-25 in the Senate.  There was a bit of post-election strife over how Iowa Democratic Party executive director Jean Hessburg had allocated funds.  Some Kerry supporters argued that Hessberg diverted money they had needed to state legislative races.However, House and Senate leaders note that they paid that money into the Coordinated Campaign and so it was theirs to spend.  Additionally, the Kerry campaign didn't settle on an actual budget in Iowa until mid-October 2004; waiting for them would have jeopardized much.  Finally, further underscoring the point, the Kerry campaign left over $650,000 in unspent campaign funds in Iowa Democratic Party accounts after Election Day.

1. Thomas Beaumont.  "Democrats to pick leader today."  Des Moines Register.  Dec. 18, 2004.
 
 
Bush-Cheney '04 Kerry-Edwards 2004
Organization details... details...
BC'04 State Chair: David Roederer
Exec. Director: Scott Kopple
Comm. Director: Ann-Marie Hauser
Office: 621 E. 9th Street, Des Moines

Iowa Victory 2004 Director: Ed Failor, Jr.

Republican Party of Iowa
State Chair: Chuck Larson; Co-Chair: Leon Mosley
Deputyc Chair/Exec. Director: Gentry Collins
Office: 621 E. 9th Street, Des Moines

KE State Director: Mike Malaise
Comm. Director: Colin Van Ostern
also last month in Iowa: National Field Director John Norris
Office: 1408 Locust Street, Des Moines

Coordinated Campaign Director: Ben Foecke

Iowa Democratic Party
State Chair: Gordon R. Fischer
Exec. Director: Jean Hessburg
Office: 1408 Locust Street 

Travel  compare...
BUSH-CHENEY KERRY-EDWARDS
Final Month (Oct. 2-Nov. 2, 2004)
George W. Bush - 7 visits (7 days)
Dick Cheney (and Lynne Cheney) - 5 visits (5 days)
Laura Bush (solo) - 1 visit (1 day)
John Kerry - 6 visits (7 days)
John Edwards - 7 visits (8 days)
Teresa Heinz Kerry (solo) - 2 visits (2 days)
Elizabeth Edwards (solo) - 4 visits (6 days)
Eight Months (March 2-Nov. 2, 2004)
George W. Bush - 14 visits (14 days)
Dick Cheney (and Lynne Cheney) - 12 visits (13 days)
Laura Bush (solo) - 5 visits (5 days)
John Kerry - 11 visits (12 days)
John Edwards - 10 visits (11 days)
Teresa Heinz Kerry (solo) - 4 visits (5 days)
Elizabeth Edwards (solo) - 8 visits (11 days)

Newspaper Endorsements
BUSH
Sioux City Journal 
The Gazette [Cedar Rapids]  (10/24/04)
The Globe Gazette [Mason City]  (10/14/04)
KERRY
Des Moines Register  (10/24/04) >
*Quad City Times [Davenport]  (10/24/04)
*Iowa City Press-Citizen  (10/23/04)
The Hawk Eye [Burlington]  (10/17/04)
The Storm Lake Times  (10/08/04)  ...twice weekly
*endorsed Bush in 2000
NO ENDORSEMENT
Ottumwa Courier (11/1/04)
"We know Bush can be president. We also think Kerry could do the job, too."



Iowa's Five Largest Counties: 2000 and 2004
Iowa's five largest counties accounted for 33.80% of the vote for president in 2000 and 34.87% of the vote in 2004.  All five went Democratic in both 2000 and 2004.  Polk County, Iowa's largest, was critical to the outcome.  Bush actually cut the Democratic plurality slightly from the 2000 level, as he did in Scott County.  Kerry improved upon the Gore's 2000 plurality in Johnson and Linn Counties.

Polk County (Des Moines)
.2000
.
.2004
Gore/Lieberman (Dem.)
89,715
(51.51%)
.
Kerry/Edwards (Dem.)
105,218
 (51.93%)
Bush/Cheney (Rep.)
79,927
(45.89%)
.
Bush/Cheney (Rep.)
95,828
(47.29%)
Nader/LaDuke (IAG)
3,366
(1.93%)
.
Nader/Camejo (Pet.)
561
(0.28%)
Others (6+scatter) 1,159 (0.67%)
.
Others (5+w/ins) 1,011 (0.50%)
Total
174,167
.
Total
202,618
13.24% of statewide total
Gore plurality:
9,788 
13.45% of statewide total
Kerry plurality:
9,390 

Linn County (Cedar Rapids)
.2000
.
.2004
Gore/Lieberman (Dem.)
48,897
(53.11%)
.
Kerry/Edwards (Dem.)
60,442
 (54.58%)
Bush/Cheney (Rep.)
40,417
(43.90%)
.
Bush/Cheney (Rep.)
49,442
(44.65%)
Nader/LaDuke (IAG) 2,106 (2.29%)
.
Nader/Camejo (Pet.)
423
(0.38%)
Others (6+scatter) 644 (0.70%)
.
Others (5+w/ins) 433 (0.39%)
Total
92,064
.
Total
110,740
7.00% of statewide total
Gore plurality:
8,480 
7.35% of statewide total
Kerry plurality:
11,000 

Scott County (Davenport)
.2000
.
.2004
Gore/Lieberman (Dem.)
35,857
(50.81%)
.
Kerry/Edwards (Dem.)
42,122
 (50.92%)
Bush/Cheney (Rep.)
32,801
(46.48%)
.
Bush/Cheney (Rep.)
39,958
(48.30%)
Nader/LaDuke (IAG) 1,386 (1.96%)
.
Nader/Camejo (Pet.)
284
(0.34%)
Others (6+scatter) 524 (0.74%)
.
Others (5+w/ins) 358 (0.43%)
Total
70,568
.
Total
82,722
5.36% of statewide total
Gore plurality:
3,056 
5.49% of statewide total
Kerry plurality:
2,164 

Black Hawk County (Waterloo)
.2000
.
.2004
Gore/Lieberman (Dem.)
30,112
(54.66%)
.
Kerry/Edwards (Dem.)
35,392
 (55.38%)
Bush/Cheney (Rep.)
23,468
(42.60%)
.
Bush/Cheney (Rep.)
28,046
(43.89%)
Nader/LaDuke (IAG) 1,132 (2.06%)
.
Nader/Camejo (Pet.)
252
(0.39%)
Others (6+scatter) 373 (0.68%)
.
Others (5+w/ins) 217 (0.34%)
Total
55,085
.
Total
63,907
4.19% of statewide total
Gore plurality:
6,644 
4.24% of statewide total
Kerry plurality:
7,346 

Johnson County (Iowa City)
.2000
.
.2004
Gore/Lieberman (Dem.)
31,174
(59.08%)
.
Kerry/Edwards (Dem.)
41,847
 (64.01%)
Bush/Cheney (Rep.)
17,899
(33.92%)
.
Bush/Cheney (Rep.)
22,715
(34.75%)
Nader/LaDuke (IAG) 3,248 (6.16%)
.
Nader/Camejo (Pet.)
309
(0.47%)
Others (6+scatter) 448 (0.85%)
.
Others (5+w/ins) 502 (0.77%)
Total
52,769
.
Total
65,373
4.01% of statewide total
Gore plurality:
13,275 
4.34% of statewide total
Kerry plurality:
19,132 

Nine counties "changed color."
Going Democratic in 2000 to Republican in 2004 were: Cedar, Greene, Louisa, and Winnebago.
Going Republican in 2000 to Democratic in 2004 were:  Fayette, Jasper, Jefferson, Poweshiek, and Winneshiek.
 

Nader
Iowa State Coordinator (volunteer): David Larson of Waterloo
On August 12, 2004, one day before the deadline, the campaign submitted more than 3,198 signatures.  Iowa requires 1,500 valid signatures, including signatures from at least ten counties.  The campaign submitted signatures in 76 counties.  On August 20 Lee Baldwin Jolliffe, a journalism professor at Drake University, filed a challenge to the petition, pointing to discrepancies in the signatures.  A three-person panel consisting of Secretary of State Chet Culver, Attorney General Tom Miller, and Auditor David Vaudt heard arguments from the two sides on August 25 and announced the next day that Nader would appear on the ballot.

Badnarik
The Libertarian Party vice presidential nominee, attorney and psychological counselor Richard V. Campagna, is a resident of Iowa City, Iowa.
 

Copyright © 2005  Eric M. Appleman/Democracy in Action.
 


The 2004 Campaign on the Web--Iowa  11/05/04
[missing due to error]
Republican Party of Iowa
www.iowagop.org
Iowa Democratic Party
www.iowademocrats.org
Iowa Green Party
greens.org/iowa
Libertarian Party of Iowa
www.lpia.org
.
...U.S. Senate
Chuck Grassley (R)
www.grassleyworks.com
Art Small (D)
www.artsmallforsenate.com
Daryl Northrop (G)
www.northropforsenate.org
H="100%"> e>

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