Des
Moines Register
Editorial: Something smells in the Democratic Party
Editorial: Something smells in the Democratic Party
The
Register's editorial
Once again the world is laughing at Iowa. Late-night
comedians and social media mavens are having a field
day with jokes about missing caucusgoers and
coin flips.
That’s fine. We can
take ribbing over our quirky process. But what we can’t stomach is even the
whiff of impropriety or error.
What happened Monday
night at the Democratic caucuses was a debacle, period.
Democracy, particularly at the local party level, can be slow, messy and
obscure. But the refusal to undergo scrutiny or
allow for an appeal reeks of autocracy.
The Iowa Democratic
Party must act quickly to assure the accuracy of the caucus results, beyond
a shadow of a doubt.
First of all, the
results were too close not to do a complete audit of results. Two-tenths of 1
percent separated Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. A caucus should not be
confused with an election, but it’s worth noting that much larger margins
trigger automatic recounts in other states.
Second, too many
questions have been raised. Too many accounts have arisen of inconsistent counts,
untrained and overwhelmed volunteers, confused voters, cramped precinct
locations, a lack of voter registration forms and other problems. Too many of
us, including members of the Register editorial board who were observing
caucuses, saw opportunities for error amid Monday night’s chaos.
The Sanders campaign
is rechecking results on its own, going precinct by precinct, and is already
finding inconsistencies, said Rania Batrice, a Sanders spokeswoman. The
campaign seeks the math sheets or other paperwork that precinct chairs
filled out and were supposed to return to the state party. They want to
compare those documents to the results entered into a Microsoft app and sent to
the party.
“Let’s compare notes.
Let’s see if they match,” Batrice said Wednesday.
Dr. Andy McGuire,
chairwoman of the Iowa Democratic Party, dug
in her heels and said no. She said the three campaigns had
representatives in a room in the hours after the caucuses and went over the
discrepancies.
McGuire knows what’s
at stake. Her actions only confirm the suspicions, wild as they might
be, of Sanders supporters. Their candidate, after all, is opposed by the
party establishment — and wasn’t even a Democrat a few months ago.
So her path forward
is clear: Work with all the campaigns to audit results. Break silly party
tradition and release the raw vote totals. Provide a list of each precinct
coin flip and its outcome, as
well as other information sought by the Register. Be transparent.
And then call for a
blue ribbon commission to study how to improve the caucuses, as the Republican
Party of Iowa did after its own fiasco in 2012. Monday’s mess showed that it’s
time for the Democrats to change, too.
The caucuses have
become something they were never intended to be. It’s as if RAGBRAI tried to
morph into the Tour de France. It wasn’t built for the speed or the
significance.
The
current process grew
out of efforts to find a more democratic way to choose delegates to
conventions, after the grassroots saw how Democratic powerbrokers controlled
the nominating process in 1968. But the caucuses have become as antiquated and
opaque as the smoke-filled rooms of yore.
Democrats should ask
themselves: What do we want the Iowa caucus to be? How can we preserve its
uniqueness while bringing more order? Does it become more like a straw poll or
primary? How do we strike the balance between tradition and transparency?
We have time to
consider these questions. First, however, we need
answers to what happened Monday night. The future of the first-in-the-nation
caucuses demands it.
Daily Caller
The Iowa Democratic Party Chair Refusing To Review Caucus Results Is A HUGE Hillary Supporter
By Chuck Ross
The Iowa Democratic party chair who is refusing to release raw vote totals from Monday’s state caucuses is a long-time Hillary Clinton supporter who donated to the politician’s various campaigns and who reportedly drives a Buick with the license plate “HRC 2016.”
Dr. Andrea “Andy”
McGuire has shot down calls to review vote tallies from Monday’s contest
despite Clinton’s razor-thin win over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. The former
secretary of state squeaked by the democratic socialist, hauling in 49.9
percent of state delegate equivalents versus Sanders’ 49.6 percent.
The Clinton campaign
claimed complete victory in the caucuses on Tuesday despite the close vote. But
others, including the Sanders campaign, are questioning the outcome, citing
paperwork irregularities and coin flips that awarded county delegates in
some precincts.
In a column published in the Des Moines Register on Thursday,
the paper’s editorial board called Monday’s caucuses a “debacle” and said that
a complete audit was in order.
“First
of all, the results were too close not to do a complete audit of results,”
reads the article, entitled “Something smells in the Democratic party.”
“Two-tenths of 1
percent separated Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. A caucus should not be
confused with an election, but it’s worth noting that much larger margins
trigger automatic recounts in other states,” the editorial reads.
The paper called on
McGuire, who once ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor, to embrace
transparency by releasing raw vote totals.
“So her path forward
is clear: Work with all the campaigns to audit results. Break silly party
tradition and release the raw vote totals. Provide a list of each precinct coin
flip and its outcome, as well as other information sought by the
Register. Be transparent,” the editors write, noting that the Sanders
campaign is reviewing precinct tallies and claims to have found irregularities.
But McGuire, the
former president of Meridian Health, has so far resisted calls for a
review of the vote.
“The answer is that
we had all three camps in the tabulation room last night to address any
grievances brought forward, and we went over any discrepancies. These are the
final results,” she told the Register.
There’s plenty of
reason to question McGuire’s objectivity, however.
A Daily Caller
analysis of federal campaign finance records shows that McGuire has
contributed $7,139 to Clinton’s campaigns over the years. On Dec. 29, 2008
she donated to Hill PAC, a political action committee set up for Clinton. On
Sept. 30, 2007 McGuire gave $2,300 to Clinton’s presidential campaign. She
donated $588.80 to the campaign on June 27, 2007. And on June 7, 2005, McGuire
gave $4,000 to Clinton’s Senate campaign.
According to a 2007 New York Times article, McGuire hosted a
fundraiser for Clinton at her Des Moines home.
Besides the financial
ties, McGuire is close to Clinton in other ways. In 2007 she was appointed to
the Women’s Leadership Council for Team Hillary, a group of 250 women
whose goal was to help Clinton reach the White House. She also served as Iowa
co-chairwoman on Clinton’s campaign during that election.
McGuire, who claimed
that she would be objective when she took over the Iowa Democratic party last
year, has also reportedly put her affection for Clinton on public display.
According to a 2014 Des Moines Register article, the former physician
drives a Buick with a license plate that reads: “HRC 2016.”
McGuire did not
return a request for comment. Nor did the Sanders campaign.
