Iowa, Yepsen and the Student Kerfuffle
12 December 2007 11:22 am by Taylor Marsh
Taylor Marsh LIVE!
3:00 p.m. eastern – 12:00 pacific
Missed the show? Podcast is up.
All things Iowa with Chase Martyn; Biden closing in on 4th; It’s a horserace.
Well, well, well, David Yepsen lectures Obama on busing in students to participate in the Iowa caucus. Chase Martyn offers his own view: College Students Should Participate More in Politics. He’ll be on the show to talk about that and much more; yes, including Oprah. Here’s a snippet of Yepsen:
… .. Given that many students in Iowa’s colleges and universities are from Obama’s neighboring home state of Illinois, the effort could net him lots of additional votes on caucus night. It’s all quite legal, and other campaigns are signing up nonresident Iowa college students, too. But Obama’s effort is unprecedented. No presidential campaign in memory has ever made such a large, open attempt to encourage students from another state to participate in Iowa’s caucuses.
(But, then, they do elections a little differently in Illinois than we do in Iowa. At least you can’t vote a dead person in an Iowa caucus.)
The issue of out-of-staters came up recently when Chris Dodd urged his rivals to promise that their staffers working in Iowa wouldn’t register as voters here so they could participate in the caucuses. Bill Richardson didn’t agree because he didn’t want to disenfranchise staffers who are long-time residents. While the Associated Press reports he’s asking New Mexico political appointees help him in Iowa, he says they won’t caucus for him.
It’s one thing for Obama to turn out non-Iowans to party dinners, eastern Iowa rallies, Oprah Winfrey visits or door-knocking. It would be something else to have them actually vote, something the campaign emphatically says it isn’t encouraging. But Larry Rasky, a spokesman for Joe Biden’s campaign, said last week: “Obama has paid no more than lip service to the timely call by the Dodd campaign for all the candidates to pledge to keep their out-of-state supporters on the sidelines.” … ..
Rock the Vote also weighed in on the student kerfuffle.
Lots to talk about. It’s primary ‘08 in focus.
Hope you can join me.
