Primary Season Coverage By Aaron Joseph. The fact that Mitt Romney has beaten Mr. Santorum and all the others in so close an Iowa caucus would usually be more or less symbolic, with the obvious requirement to hit the ground running in New Hampshire, for the first in the country primary come January 10th. Although, it is extremely good publicity in today’s media frenzied world to win the Iowa Caucus and is also usually a good propellant in all various political ways.

However, due to the fact that Mitt Romney walked away with the highest vote count by only eight- that’s 8 votes- while so highly outsourcing and outspending all the other candidates, having spent virtually the past four years pinning to win this caucus, means everything. Especially since a man- Rick Santorum, a man without his own campaign bus, virtually came out of nowhere to nearly tie the most highly visiable Iowa campaigning Iowa Republican’s have ever seen, sends a clear message, that Mr Romney is not a heavy favorite at all.

Mitt Romney, coming in virtually tied just ahead of the count of Mr. Santorum, suffered a terrific and deafening setback. This man who has spent millions, and has spent years promoting himself, recently assisted by all his grown sons, was unable to pull away from the pack and distinguish himself.

I cannot know the reasons, however, it would behoove this author not to assume that the voters have finally begun to see through a cash lined veneer and pompousness of Mitt Romney . Or perhaps, they have recognized fact that Mr. Santorum is truly an ideal candidate. Or perhaps both.

What is certain is, that with the nearly tied Iowa Caucus in the past, Mr. Santorum has all to gain in the very quickly arriving New Hampshire primary next week, and Mitt Romney has all to lose.

So as to be concise, and layout the Iowa Caucus properly, we begin the feature of this article with a bit of background information. To jump straight to the “meat and potatoes” of Iowa today, scroll down to near the end.

A BIT OF ELECTION HISTORY:

Over the history of the United States, the party nomination process for president has varied and surely changed. In fact, the election process has changed as well.

THE CONSTITUTION & ELECTORAL COLLEGE:

Legally, according to the United States Constitution, (Article Two), the President of The United States is not directly elected by the voting public, but rather by electors appointed by each state. These electors are supposed to cast their Electoral Vote on your behalf, corresponding to the popular vote in their district. The amount of electors in the Electoral College per state corresponds to the collective representatives (Senator and Congressmen) that any specific state sends to the United States Congress. The least possible amount is three, as each state has two senators, and at least one congressman.

(The reason for the idea of an Electoral College, as opposed to direct elections by the general public, was due to a compromise between those who framed the constitution. Some wanted the United States Congress to elect the president. Others wanted the public to do so; they said the president would be too beholden to the congress. Small states at the time opted for the congress to elect the president, or an indirect election. These small states were rightfully concerned that their state’s concerns would be overlooked because of their small population size; they wanted a format of leverage in the election process. As well, an overriding concern, even in the year 1787, was that certain disagreements between the Northern States, and the Southern States were already irreconcilable, and therefore a compromise was required.) Officially, although not legally required to do so, the Electoral College electors cast their electoral votes corresponding the popular votes of their state’s districts.

THE ORIGINAL ELECTION:

There was a time early on in the days of George Washington and John Adams, when the presidential candidate who received the most electoral votes would become president, as did George Washington, and the candidate whom received the second most electoral votes would become vice-president, meet Mr. Adams. It did not matter which party they were from. In fact, as far as history can decipher, George Washington was not actually part of any political party when he was elected to his first term in 1787. Sounds cool Huh! Bipartisanship in its glorious heyday. Each elector in the electoral college of those days cast two votes for president only, as opposed to one vote for president, and one for vice-president that they do today. That all changed quickly… And the Twelfth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution was adopted because….

THE TWELFTH AMENDMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION: (the way it is today!)

In the election of the year1800, Aaron Burr and Thomas Jefferson received an equal amount of electoral votes for president, apparently split on party lines. This caused a conflagration in congress, before various seemingly underhand deals handed the presidency to Thomas Jefferson, our third president; appointing Aaron Burr, Vice President. (Apparently, Alexander Hamilton was highly influential in those dealings of keeping Aaron Burr (whom he purportedly detested, from the presidency, further deepening their personal animosity.) The modification and adoption of the Twelfth Amendment of the Constitution changed the original procedure; whereas each elector in the Electoral College initially cast two electoral votes for president, after the Twelfth Amendment, electors cast only one electoral vote for president, and only one electoral vote for vice-president.

THE BEGINNING OF TIME FOR POLITICAL PARTY PRIMARIES:

American historians and scholars believe that the original intended plan of how the Electoral College worked before the Twelfth Amendment, where each state elector would cast two equal electoral votes for president only, was intended for the one simple goal of purposely sending the final election of the president to the United States Congress. Scholars believe that this formula was intended to allow Congress to decide between the two men who received equal electoral vote tallies, and seen by all as the most worthy to hold the office. However, as noted, the system was not sustainable and broke down. Hence, it left the original intention of the Second Article of the Constitution to evolve into political party primaries (because of the Twelfth Amendment). The party primary process allows for the original envisioned intention of the Second Article of the Constitution to be enacted; for the most worthy man to ultimately be selected by his party, and ultimately, for the political parties to put up their own most worthy men. This brings us to Iowa, and the official beginning of the Presidential Election Season.

PARTY POLITICS & DELGATES:

As the United States has evolved into the superpower that it is today, the leadership of the federal government is promoted through what we commonly call today: political parties.

In essence a political party is the grouping of those who share common ideals and visions for the good of the country. The United States has seen various political parties come and go. There has been the Federalist Party started by Alexander Hamilton, and the Anti Federalist Party of the early 1800’s. Their was a Whig Party, which counted Daniel Webster and General Winfield Scott amongst its leaders, and even had Abraham Lincoln as a late member, until the party disbanded in the mid 1850’s. Every state and region of the United States has their own political parties as well. New Jersey has what’s called the New Jersey Conservative Party. Have you ever heard of it?

To date there have been nearly one hundred U.S. political parties over past two hundred years of this nations history. The United States even sports a “Communist” Party. But naturally the political parties we here all about are the two most prominent ones, and the two which have coined the self-promoted term saying that the United States government is a two party system. While the term is debatable, there is no such law restricting the United States Government to a two party system. These two parties are naturally, the Democrat and Republican parties.

Both the Democrat and Republican Parties both have very similar organizational structures and standards, with minute variations that basically follow the same ideas. There are a few key differences however in regard to how these two parties nominate their candidate for president.

Both parties use the process of sending representatives called delegates from each state to the respective party’s national convention which nominates their candidate for president.

Democrats:
Have a system in place of 4,047 delegates, of which 794 are superdelegates. Superdelegates are usually Democratic members of Congress, governors, former Presidents, and other party leaders. They are not required to indicate preference for a candidate.

The remaining 3,000+ delegates from the 50 states are usually mostly pledged to a specific candidate through the states’ primary process where the amount of delegates from that state go to the national convention to help select the Democratic Party Nominee.

The Democratic Party uses a proportional representation to determine how many delegates each candidate is awarded in each state. For example, a candidate who wins 40% of a state’s vote in the primary election will win 40% of that state’s delegates; however, a candidate must win at least 15% of the primary vote in order to receive any delegates. There is no process to win superdelegates, since they can vote for whomever they please. A candidate needs to win a simple majority of total delegates to earn the Democratic nomination

Republicans:
Have a similar system to that of the Democrats. Except, the Republican do not have “superdelegates,” but rather have pledged, and unpledged delegates.

The Republican party has 2,380 Republican delegates, of which 1,719 delegates are pledged delegates, meaning, they are won by a candidate in primaries, and come to the Republican National Convention ready to choose the winner of their state’s primary to become the party’s Presidential Nominee. A majority of the unpledged delegates are elected much like the pledged delegates, and are likely to be committed toa specific candidate

The process by which Republican delegates are awarded to a candidate will vary from state to state. Many states use a winner-take-all system, where popular vote determines the winning candidate for that state, while a few others use a proportional representation.

To become the Republican Party nominee, the candidate must win a simple majority of 1,191 of the 2,380 total delegates at the Republican National Convention.

WELCOME TO THE IOWA CAUCUS:

Why Iowa, and what in the world is so important about that centrally located state?

Well firstly, the presidential election process must start somewhere. While it is up to the actually state legislatures to determine exactly when their state will hold its primary day, the political parties do hold much sway and influence as to when states determine their primary date.

Some analystst state that Iowa is not a very good indicator of the national political sentiment, as Iowa is far more conservative, and far less diverse than the average U.S. State. However, all agree that Iowa is the state which can truly ignite or flame an aspiring political campaign.

The Iowa caucuses operate very differently from the more common primary election used by most other states (see U.S. presidential primary). The caucuses are generally defined as “gatherings of neighbors.” Rather than going to polls and casting ballots, Iowans gather at a set location in each of Iowa’s 1,774 precincts. Typically, these meetings occur in schools, churches, public libraries and even individuals’ houses.

Unlike the first-in-the-nation primary in New Hampshire, the Iowa caucus does not result directly in national delegates for each candidate. Instead, caucus-goers elect delegates to county conventions, who in turn elect delegates to district and state conventions where Iowa’s national convention delegates are selected.

Democratic Caucus:
Participants indicate their support for a particular candidate by standing in a designated area of the caucus site (forming a preference group). An area may also be designated for undecided participants. Then, for roughly 30 minutes, participants try to convince their neighbors to support their candidates. Each preference group might informally deputize a few members to recruit supporters from the other groups and, in particular, from among those undecided.

After 30 minutes, the electioneering is temporarily halted and the supporters for each candidate are counted. At this point, the caucus officials determine which candidates are viable. Delegates to each level of convention are initially bound to support their chosen candidate but can later switch in a process very similar to what goes on at the precinct level

Republican Caucus:
The Republican caucuses, each voter officially casts his or her vote by secret ballot. Voters are presented blank sheets of paper with no candidate names on them. After listening to some campaigning for each candidate by caucus participants, they write their choices down and the Republican Party of Iowa tabulates the results at each precinct and transmits them to the media.

Delegates from the precinct caucuses go on to the county conventions, which choose delegates to the district conventions, which in turn select delegates to the Iowa State Convention. Thus, it is the Republican Iowa State Convention, not the precinct caucuses, which selects the ultimate delegates from Iowa to the Republican National Convention. All delegates are officially unbound from the results of the precinct caucus, although media organizations either estimate delegate numbers by estimating county convention results or simply divide them proportionally.

The Iowa caucuses are noteworthy for the amount of media attention they cause, and have served as an early indication of which candidates for president might win the nomination of their political party at that party’s national convention, and which ones could drop out for lack of support.

Now we are off to New Hampshire.