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Thursday, January 03, 2008

Political Geography of the Iowa Caucus Campaign

The Washington Post has a great interactive map on the Political Geography of the Iowa Caucus. Each candidate is studying the geography of Iowa in order to try to win the state.

Mike Huckabee: Huckabee is focusing on the rural, conservative northwestern section of the state. Christian conservatives are more concentrated here (anyone who knows that region knows it is filled with 'Dutch').

Mitt Romney: Romney is going where the votes: Des Moines and Cedar Rapids. He has been in the state for along time and hopes his ground network can suppress the Huckabee insurgency.

Barak Obama: Obama's campaign of "hope and energy" is focusing on youth. In particular Obama is focusing on the university towns of Ames (Iowa State University), Cedar Falls (University of Northern Iowa), and Iowa City (University of Iowa). This may be a smart strategy because the students at these universities will be on break and spread all throughout the state. Obama may have his own missionaries engage in fifth generation warfare (5GW).

John Edwards: Edwards is a union man and has centered his energy around Des Moines and the industrial and populist farmer town of Newton. His energy here has cost him somewhat with possible support from other blue-collar areas like the Mississippi River Coast and Sioux City.

Hillary Clinton: Clinton is focusing on the middle class, (sub)urban woman. The natural environment in Iowa for these women is Des Moines. Attention here has cost here with other caucus voters elsewhere in the state.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You know me, I always have to bring baseball into the equation... I am wondering how the geography of the candidates support in Iowa will correspond with the fan geography of the teams that the candidates claim allegiance to.

Hillary grew up in the NW suburbs of Chicago as a Cubs fan. In Iowa, Cubs fans are dominate in the quad cities area and Des Moines.

Huckabee is a native of Arkansas and a Cardinals fan. Support for the Cardinals is strong in southern Iowa.

Obama is a White Sox fan. Again Chicago fans can be found in the quad cities but not as prevalent as Cubs fans who Obama has not been afraid to poke fun at.

Edwards has not unveiled his favorite baseball team.

Romney, considering his background, is probably a Red Sox fan.

http://homerderby.com/archives/1652

Anonymous said...

How will the geography of the candidates political support in Iowa correspond with the baseball allegiances of the voters and the teams that the candidates claim to support.

Iowa has a mixture of fan support. The Cubs, Cardinals, White Sox, Royals and Twins all have fans in the state.

Hillary is a Cubs fan. Obama, a White Sox fan. Huckabee is a outspoken Cardinals fan. Romney is probably a Red Sox fan. Edwards has not unveiled his favorite team.