Iowa Will be Even More Influential in 2008

Iowa is going to be even more influential in the 2008 nominating process despite larger states like California, New Jersey, New York, Florida, and Texas moving the dates of their primaries up to February 5th.

Here is a New York Times story, via Political Wire, about Iowa being even more important in 2008.

For all the tinkering with the 2008 primary schedule, for all the attempts by nearly 20 states to have a greater say in picking the nominee, an unusually early swarm of campaign visits here underscores which state — for now, at least — is one of the top priorities. A new route may exist on the road to the White House, but no candidates are daring to discount the familiar path of Iowa. In fact, the state has almost certainly become more influential.

In the last week or so alone, the field of Republican and Democratic hopefuls staged more than 50 public events across Iowa. They opened offices, welcomed hundreds of new staffers and made scores of calls to local political dignitaries, just letting them know they were in the neighborhood.

Candidates no longer are even considering skipping Iowa or New Hampshire.

Ordinarily, it might be worth the risk. But with California, Texas, New York and Illinois among the states looking to set their own primaries in early February, immediately after the first round, the luxury of gaining traction slowly and steadily between contests is gone.

Even though other states wanted more of a say in the nominating process, it is looking like we have an even more important task ahead of us. With a such a wide open field and so many candidates, it is our job to be stubborn Iowans. We expect to shake the candidate's hands (preferably in someone's living room or a coffee shop and not in a large arena) and aren't afriad to ask the tough questions. We will continue this ritual until we find a candidate worthwhile to support, even if it takes seeing each candidate six times. This process is the definition of people-powered politics and it is the way democracy is meant to be done.

When it is all said and done, Iowans will have picked a candidate, not based on what the news media says, or which candidate has the most money, or what endorsements they have, but because we have done our research. If the rest of the nation has a problem with the candidate that we pick in the Iowa Caucuses, it is important to remember that no one is forcing these other states to support the same candidate in their primaries.