The Deal Was for Real (UPDATED)

03.01.2008

Bill Richardson was not viable in this precinct, and all 17 of his supporters (of 161) appear to have switched en masse to Barack Obama. They're sorting out three remaining Biden supporters who can decide the winner here.

Update: Maybe the "deal" isn't in effect statewide. Ben Smith saw a more informal Richardson dispersion.

Final verdict: 58 people for Hillary, 56 for Obama, 49 for Edwards. But thanks to the mystfifying mathematical formula, Hillary wins this precint with three delegates. The other two get two delegates.

More, 7:58 pm: A Richardson campaign worker here and two Richardson supporters who switched to Obama told me that the Richardson contingent was not given marching orders to switch en masse, that they made the decision as a group after talking it over. Seems a bit hard to imagine that 17 people all thought the same way, but for the record that's what I'm told.

--Michael Crowley

Posted: Thursday, January 03, 2008 8:34 PM with 2 comment(s)

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AaronBBrown said:

I will attest Mr. Crowley, the taste of victory is sweet.

Obama 08, the People's choice.

January 3, 2008 9:38 PM

Report precincts, 70, 71, 72 Merrill middle school, Des Moines Iowa

If you were watching CNN tonight, this was one of the caucuses you got to see, the guy who gave the Edwards speech talked about fighting, and the Black woman who gave the Obama speech got a few boos from the other camps for her firebrand approach.

My brother Lincoln Brown attended this caucus, and he said that from the get go Obama had 30% in his precinct. He said there were between 2000 and 3000 people there Democrat and Republican. When he got there, five minutes before it started, there were 120 Democrats still in line waiting to register.

There were 400 people in his Precinct 71, and he talked to three undecideds. The Joe Biden people got divided up between between the Richardson and Clinton people.

Here's the final breakdown for his precinct, 71

Obama -- 3 delegates

Clinton -- 2 delegates

Edwards -- 1 delegate

Richardson -- 1 delegate

He told me that there were no political operatives there, just good Iowans who wanted to do the right thing for their state and their country.

He caucused for Obama of course, because he's my little brother and I worked on convincing him for about a year. Last time around he caucused for Edwards.

Obama 08, I believe.

January 3, 2008 10:32 PM