The press will think you’re colorful
As we get under 45 days until the Caucus, all systems are go!
Elizabeth Warren looks like she may have a head-to-head battle with Pete Buttigieg, so she's changing up her strategy. Essentially going from a planned stump speech of 45 minutes to a quick 8 minute intro and open up for questions. It has its risks, but the major advantage is getting to talk to people, and that is really how the Caucus gets won.
Similarly, Klobuchar's endgame is to interact with Iowas. For years, Senator Charles Grassley famously makes a stop in every county in Iowa, to the point, that it has become called "The Full Grassley" and Amy is going to do it. The news isn't that she is going to do it (she planned to do it before the caucus), but will do it by year end. John Delaney, to date, is the only candidate in this cycle to accomplish that.
Indeed, this is shaping up to be a campaign coming down to a close finish to the wire. I must make mention of some of the sparring between Pete and Liz, especially over what is seen as 'elite donor' pandering.
The tone of my blog is light, but in this election cycle, the image of "billionaires in wine caves" will be lasting (even if false) No, let's keep it light. Like Buttigieg bringing Kevin Costner to Iowa to campaign with him.
Costner conjures images of that all-American sport of baseball (and bad Robin Hood accents and water-deprived dystopias), but it's Bernie Sanders who is making baseball part of his campaign.
Major League Baseball announced a plan to contract 42 minor league baseball teams. While that won't affect my hometown, Iowa Cubs; it does mean a real possibility for the Burlington Bees (Single A Angels affiliate), Cedar Rapids Kernels (Single A Twins affiliate), Clinton Lumber Kings (Single A Marlins) and the Quad Cities River Bandits (Single A Astros).
Sanders says:
“I am outraged that we have today Major League Baseball, an institution owned mostly by billionaires," Sanders told local minor league officials and current and former players as he campaigned in Iowa last weekend, "an institution that last year made $1.2 billion in profits, an institution that has received exemptions, anti-trust exemptions from Major League Baseball, an institution that over the years has received hundreds of millions of dollars in corporate welfare as taxpayers built major stadiums around the country -- has announced a proposal that would shut down 42 teams, minor league teams around the country."
While in Burlington, while talking with MLB reps, he also took some batting practice.
The response from baseball is that contraction will help with the woes of those speaking loudest about what minor leaguers have to suffer through (as mentioned by Dirk Hayhurst and others). MLB says the move will get players out of crappy stadiums and conditions, fix illogical travel plans, allow owners to spend their money more wisely, and that small cities can find Independent baseball teams to fill the void and income.
The Democrat candidate for the US Senate in the Fourth district, JD Scholten played a bit of independent ball for the Northwest Honkers, Sioux City Explorers, and Saskatoon Legends.
For some reason, last week, when I was writing of weird ways the candidates are having fun, it slipped my mind to mention the Andrew Yang- JD Scholten basketball game, which was held right after Yang opened his Ames office.
While advertised all week as Scholten vs Yang (make that 6'6" Scholten vs 5'10" Yang), they teamed together (and lost) a three-on-three match.
I talked to a Yang supporter who was there, and didn't get any gems for this blog (except Yang can shoot threes), but he and everyone else seemed to have fun.
All the candidates seem to be finding time before the year to get to Iowa, with Sanders celebrating his New Year's Eve at a rally at the downtown Marriott in Des Moines (as he did in 2016).
IowaStartingLine got some good stuff out of Booker like his Diet Mountain Dew addiction (Booker is a teetotaler) , some Dad jokes (Santa Claus, coming down the chimney, there’s a fire in the fireplace. What do you call him? Crisp Kringle). and the Older/Younger game (Sarah Silverman and Chelsea Handler are younger than Booker, Jimmy Kimmel, Tom Cruise, and Brad Pitt are older).
They even caught him going to the new Star Wars movie in Ottumwa.
Anyway, no reason candidates can't have fun, and us, Iowans too. As local Party officials and the campaigns try to teach the complicated Caucus procedures, a local drinking establishment decided to have fun with it. (You can always read my examples here)
The Hall's Beer Caucus was meant as education, but also a good night out. Sponsored by the Des Moines Register, six "candidates" from the biggest local breweries - Exile, Confluence, Peace Tree, Big Grove, Lake Time and Single Speed competed.
So unique was this event, the New Yorker covered it.
They did a Republican caucus first, which is a basic secret ballot vote, then the Democratic caucus.
Like the real thing, a vote was taken by grouping people up by preference, and then seeing if a "candidate" was viable. Only two made the 15% cut of viability- Big Grove’s Easy Eddy and Peace Tree’s Blonde Fatale.
Cheers went up in the room. “The other groups, you must realign,” Judy Downs, the executive director of the Polk County Democrats, said. “You can either join one of these viable groups, or work amongst yourselves to create another viable group.” People in the room began milling about. “Come join Peace Tree!” Amber Heller yelled at some friends. Exile had been her first choice, she said, and she didn’t even like Blonde Fatale. I found DeAnn Adams in the Big Grove crowd. “I.P.A.,” she said. Tried and true, I said. “That’s right.” A guy in a gray sweatshirt stood with two friends surveying the scene. “This is democracy, man,” he said.
Next, there was campaigning as everyone prepared for the second alignment. Peace Tree would win the night, but in shocking turn of events, "Uncommitted" would edge out Big Grove.
Technically, if they had a little bit more organizational power, they could have won the entire caucus,” she said, of the uncommitted group. “So it tells you what campaigns should be thinking about, because campaigns shouldn't just be thinking about how to get the first, the largest amount of people in that first alignment, but they should be thinking about where their candidates lie in terms of people’s second place.”
Lastly, what would we be without polling data.
The most recent Iowa polls have good news for Sanders, who doesn't lead either one, but is solidly in second in both.
Iowa State
Buttigieg 24%
Sanders 21%
Warren 18%
Biden 15%
Klobuchar 4%
Yang , Booker, Gabbard 3%
Steyer 2%
Castro 1%
Emerson College:
Biden 23%
Sanders 22%
Buttigeig 18%
Warren 12%
Klobuchar 10%
Booker 4%
Steyer 3%
Bloomberg, Yang, Gabbard 2%
Elizabeth Warren looks like she may have a head-to-head battle with Pete Buttigieg, so she's changing up her strategy. Essentially going from a planned stump speech of 45 minutes to a quick 8 minute intro and open up for questions. It has its risks, but the major advantage is getting to talk to people, and that is really how the Caucus gets won.
Similarly, Klobuchar's endgame is to interact with Iowas. For years, Senator Charles Grassley famously makes a stop in every county in Iowa, to the point, that it has become called "The Full Grassley" and Amy is going to do it. The news isn't that she is going to do it (she planned to do it before the caucus), but will do it by year end. John Delaney, to date, is the only candidate in this cycle to accomplish that.
Indeed, this is shaping up to be a campaign coming down to a close finish to the wire. I must make mention of some of the sparring between Pete and Liz, especially over what is seen as 'elite donor' pandering.
The tone of my blog is light, but in this election cycle, the image of "billionaires in wine caves" will be lasting (even if false) No, let's keep it light. Like Buttigieg bringing Kevin Costner to Iowa to campaign with him.
Costner conjures images of that all-American sport of baseball (and bad Robin Hood accents and water-deprived dystopias), but it's Bernie Sanders who is making baseball part of his campaign.
Major League Baseball announced a plan to contract 42 minor league baseball teams. While that won't affect my hometown, Iowa Cubs; it does mean a real possibility for the Burlington Bees (Single A Angels affiliate), Cedar Rapids Kernels (Single A Twins affiliate), Clinton Lumber Kings (Single A Marlins) and the Quad Cities River Bandits (Single A Astros).
Sanders says:
“I am outraged that we have today Major League Baseball, an institution owned mostly by billionaires," Sanders told local minor league officials and current and former players as he campaigned in Iowa last weekend, "an institution that last year made $1.2 billion in profits, an institution that has received exemptions, anti-trust exemptions from Major League Baseball, an institution that over the years has received hundreds of millions of dollars in corporate welfare as taxpayers built major stadiums around the country -- has announced a proposal that would shut down 42 teams, minor league teams around the country."
While in Burlington, while talking with MLB reps, he also took some batting practice.
The response from baseball is that contraction will help with the woes of those speaking loudest about what minor leaguers have to suffer through (as mentioned by Dirk Hayhurst and others). MLB says the move will get players out of crappy stadiums and conditions, fix illogical travel plans, allow owners to spend their money more wisely, and that small cities can find Independent baseball teams to fill the void and income.
The Democrat candidate for the US Senate in the Fourth district, JD Scholten played a bit of independent ball for the Northwest Honkers, Sioux City Explorers, and Saskatoon Legends.
For some reason, last week, when I was writing of weird ways the candidates are having fun, it slipped my mind to mention the Andrew Yang- JD Scholten basketball game, which was held right after Yang opened his Ames office.
While advertised all week as Scholten vs Yang (make that 6'6" Scholten vs 5'10" Yang), they teamed together (and lost) a three-on-three match.
I talked to a Yang supporter who was there, and didn't get any gems for this blog (except Yang can shoot threes), but he and everyone else seemed to have fun.
All the candidates seem to be finding time before the year to get to Iowa, with Sanders celebrating his New Year's Eve at a rally at the downtown Marriott in Des Moines (as he did in 2016).
IowaStartingLine got some good stuff out of Booker like his Diet Mountain Dew addiction (Booker is a teetotaler) , some Dad jokes (Santa Claus, coming down the chimney, there’s a fire in the fireplace. What do you call him? Crisp Kringle). and the Older/Younger game (Sarah Silverman and Chelsea Handler are younger than Booker, Jimmy Kimmel, Tom Cruise, and Brad Pitt are older).
They even caught him going to the new Star Wars movie in Ottumwa.
Anyway, no reason candidates can't have fun, and us, Iowans too. As local Party officials and the campaigns try to teach the complicated Caucus procedures, a local drinking establishment decided to have fun with it. (You can always read my examples here)
The Hall's Beer Caucus was meant as education, but also a good night out. Sponsored by the Des Moines Register, six "candidates" from the biggest local breweries - Exile, Confluence, Peace Tree, Big Grove, Lake Time and Single Speed competed.
So unique was this event, the New Yorker covered it.
They did a Republican caucus first, which is a basic secret ballot vote, then the Democratic caucus.
Like the real thing, a vote was taken by grouping people up by preference, and then seeing if a "candidate" was viable. Only two made the 15% cut of viability- Big Grove’s Easy Eddy and Peace Tree’s Blonde Fatale.
Cheers went up in the room. “The other groups, you must realign,” Judy Downs, the executive director of the Polk County Democrats, said. “You can either join one of these viable groups, or work amongst yourselves to create another viable group.” People in the room began milling about. “Come join Peace Tree!” Amber Heller yelled at some friends. Exile had been her first choice, she said, and she didn’t even like Blonde Fatale. I found DeAnn Adams in the Big Grove crowd. “I.P.A.,” she said. Tried and true, I said. “That’s right.” A guy in a gray sweatshirt stood with two friends surveying the scene. “This is democracy, man,” he said.
Next, there was campaigning as everyone prepared for the second alignment. Peace Tree would win the night, but in shocking turn of events, "Uncommitted" would edge out Big Grove.
Technically, if they had a little bit more organizational power, they could have won the entire caucus,” she said, of the uncommitted group. “So it tells you what campaigns should be thinking about, because campaigns shouldn't just be thinking about how to get the first, the largest amount of people in that first alignment, but they should be thinking about where their candidates lie in terms of people’s second place.”
Lastly, what would we be without polling data.
The most recent Iowa polls have good news for Sanders, who doesn't lead either one, but is solidly in second in both.
Iowa State
Buttigieg 24%
Sanders 21%
Warren 18%
Biden 15%
Klobuchar 4%
Yang , Booker, Gabbard 3%
Steyer 2%
Castro 1%
Emerson College:
Biden 23%
Sanders 22%
Buttigeig 18%
Warren 12%
Klobuchar 10%
Booker 4%
Steyer 3%
Bloomberg, Yang, Gabbard 2%
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