Immigration, ag issues predicted to be hot topics at caucuses
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
By Magdalene Biesanz

It's a close race on both sides.

Neither the Republican nor the Democratic county chairmen are willing to predict the outcome of the Jan. 3 caucus regarding the presidential candidates, but they are foreseeing a few hot issues that will come up before the night is over.

Immigration, said County Republican Chairman Don Kass, will be one of them.

"I suspect there will be a very loud and clear expression of people's views regarding the immigration policy, especially hear in Iowa," Kass said, noting that the issue will run all the way from the local level to the national party platform discussions. "I think candidates from both parties have been taken somewhat by surprise by the intensity that that issue is discussed in Iowa. It's not just my party. It's both parties that want something done, and they want it done yesterday."

On the Republican side, social topics like abortion and homosexual marriage are usually big, Kass said, and so are gun control and taxes.

Health care issues, according to County Democratic Chairman Jon Neunaber, will likely be another hot topic this year.

He noted that some more locally-driven topics will also take the floor at the county caucuses.

"Around here agricultural issues are big," Neunaber said.

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One current issue is the vertical integration of livestock -- that means the meat packers own the livestock every step of the way.

"I would guess that there would be a plank that would ban packer ownership of livestock," Neunaber said. "That's a pretty big issue around here."

That, he said, is better for the independent farmer.

He also predicted that veterans' issues will come up before the night is over.

And caucus goers can add to the mix any issue they'd like to see the party take a stance on, then hash it out with the local group. Kass said this is what Iowa's caucuses are all about.

"It's almost like a family meeting, like your local coffee klatch. Traditionally that's kind of what it's meant to be. It's politics at its most grassroots level. It's talking to your neighbor about what your party should believe."

At times, the caucuses get pretty heated, he said.

"You can have contested votes, especially when it applies to the platform," he said. "There are winners and losers in politics, even at this local level."

And there will be winners and losers among the presidential hopefuls on Jan. 3 as well, although neither Kass nor Neunaber are willing to predict who.

Kass has a simple answer on who will win the Republican nod: "I don't know."

"You just can't predict whose people are going to show up that night," he said.

In Plymouth County, Neunaber agreed, it's wide open.

"We definitely have three strong candidates -- Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Barack Obama," he said, careful to list them by alphabetical order.

"If you ask me to predict who's going to win on Jan. 3, it could be any of the three," he said.

But the local caucuses have turned out to be remarkably accurate at times, at least in the last presidential caucus, he said.

Four years ago, the statewide results on the Democratic side turned out like this:

38 percent - John Kerry

32 percent - John Edwards

18 percent - Howard Dean

11 percent - Richard Gephardt.

In Plymouth County, it was almost the same:

40 percent - John Kerry

31 percent - John Edwards

18 percent - Howard Dean

11 percent - Richard Gephardt.

"We mirrored the state," Neunaber said.

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