The Iowa Democratic Party formally launched its review of the 2016 Caucuses this weekend with a public meeting in Des Moines and plans to release a report in September with recommendations for how the 2020 Caucuses should be conducted.
Iowa Democratic Party chairwoman Andy McGuire appointed the review panel. She opened the meeting Saturday with these words: “There is no suggestion that is off the table.” Hillary Clinton finished a quarter-of-a-percentage point ahead of Bernie Sanders in the Iowa Caucuses. The Sanders campaign complained there was no way to conduct a recount, plus there were concerns about confusing party rules, tiny venues and long lines for Democrats who turned out February 1st.
That’s former Iowa Congressman Dave Nagle of Waterloo. He served as chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party in the early 1980s and Nagle is leading the 26-member review panel. Nagle invited Iowa G-O-P chairman Jeff Kaufmann to speak to the group.
Kaufmann says the Iowa Republican Party spent nearly a million dollars putting on its 2016 Iowa Caucuses. Four paid staffers were hired to work full-time on the project in the year leading up to the caucuses. More than 300 training sessions were held around the state for the party volunteers who ran the Republican Party’s precinct meetings on Caucus night.
Some recommendations discussed Saturday included electronic check-in for caucus-goers and a new state law that would require government facilities to be available for the precinct meetings held on Caucus Night.
