Convention notebook: Culver not worried about caucus, primary study

Font Size:

By Ed Tibbetts | Monday, August 25, 2008 2:05 AM CDT | () comments

Iowa Gov. Chet Culver said he doesn’t expect a new commission set up to study the Democratic Party’s nominating system to result in significant changes to the caucuses or Iowa’s first-in-the-nation status.

The party has approved the appointment of a panel to study its primary and caucus system. A similar commission was set up after the 2004 cycle and Iowa stayed first. However, the panel could be a storm cloud on the horizon.

“It will require, as it always does, a lot of work” to keep Iowa first, Culver told reporters this afternoon.

To that end, Culver said he’d visit the New Hampshire delegation today. The two states have had an alliance for years. New Hampshire is the first primary.

Critics of the caucuses have been more vocal this year about the exclusion of second-shift workers and people with children who often can’t make the events, which are held in a narrow window of time in the evenings.

Culver acknowledged the concerns, but said: “I don’t think there will be major changes, but I’m open to having a discussion about it.”

Culver, by the way, is slated to speak at 4 p.m. Tuesday to the convention. He’ll be among a group of governors addressing the convention.

Nice day for

a protest march

Sunday was a day for mall-walking in Denver. The 16th Street Mall in the heart of the downtown drew delegates, media and people watchers from all over.

As such, it was a magnet for people seeking attention. From anti-war protesters, abortion protesters, magicians, musicians and perhaps, I suspect, even some folks from Colorado, it was a busy scene.

Spotted in a small anti-war protest, was a Des Moines woman and her fiancé, carrying a sign reading “Iowans for Peace.”

Brooke Overturf and Sean Metz, both 24, came to see Metz’s sister and joined her for the march.

“We don’t get a lot of experience with this kind of thing in Des Moines,” Overturf said. “It’s enlighting and overwhelming at the same time.”

His twin

Davenport Mayor Bill Gluba likes Barack Obama’s selection of U.S. Sen. Joe Biden,

D-Delaware., to be his vice presidential running mate.

“I couldn’t be happier to have Joe Biden as the vice presidential candidate. After all, he’s my lookalike.”

Gluba was referring to a quip Quad-City Times columnist Bill Wundram made a while back noting their resemblance. Gluba says after the column ran, Biden sent him an autographed picture, saying “Bill, keep me looking good.”

Presidential no-shows

Usually, the menu of speakers at the Iowa delegation’s morning breakfast meetings are filled with presidential wannabes eager to get in front of activists. Not so this year. Today, the featured speaker is U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. Later in the week, it will be House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland.

Asked about the paucity of presidential aspirants, Culver chalked it up to the “likely possibility” Barack Obama will be president for two terms. “Because of that I think it would be premature for anyone really to get out there,” he said.

In other words, a visitor with too much ambition might send a message of something other than hope.

Ed Tibbetts can be contacted at

(563) 383-2327 or etibbetts@qctimes.com.

Comment on this article at qctimes.com.