Former VP says change needed in Iowa caucuses

At just under 3 million people, the residents of Iowa represent about one percent of the U.S population. But the state's influence in selecting the next president is exponentially greater. Too great, if you ask political scientist Steven Smith.

"I like Iowa," proclaims the political science professor at Washington University in St. Louis, who maintains his home in Blaine. "I spend a lot of time in Iowa, I have a lot of friends in Iowa, but there is really nothing special about Iowa." Smith's criticism, of course, isn't aimed at Iowa in general, just its first in the nation caucuses. "This is a lousy way to elect a president."

Smith, like many other political observers, say Iowa just isn't representative of the country at large - its population too rural and too white to play such a prominent role in choosing the president.

Smith points to recent public opinion polls. "In the national polls Giuliani leads, but he's maybe fifth in the Iowa caucus polls."

Iowa established its first in the nation caucus during election reforms within the Democratic Party prior to the 1972 presidential campaign. Then U.S. Senator Walter Mondale was among those involved in the changes. "No one picked Iowa," says the former vice president. "Iowa picked itself."

Mondale says some good comes from starting national campaigns on a smaller scale, where candidates must meet voters face to face, rather than relying as heavily on mass market advertising. "It's personal," says Mondale. "They want their answers and they're looking you in your eyes, just like they do in Minnesota, and they want straight talk."

Mondale says the Iowa Caucuses also allow a relatively unknown candidate like Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee to break out from the pack. Another lesser known candidate, Jimmy Carter, used the same strategy in 1976. "They were laughing at him, and he carried Iowa and went on to be president," says Mondale, who later was chosen as Carter's running mate.

But Mondale is concerned the system has morphed into "anarchy," with so many states pushing to move up their primaries. Nearly 30 states have scheduled their primaries or caucuses in the next 34 days, 22 of those states on April 5th alone.

"It's like a sudden-death inning being played at the beginning of the game rather than the end of the game," says Mondale, who favors the series of regional primaries he first proposed while still in the Senate.

"Say break up America into eight regions," explains Mondale. "Have two weeks between regions, so that there would be several states in a region that would vote at once and then you'd go to the next region and so on."

Mondale's proposal didn't fly when he first introduced it, and he doesn't see it gaining steam now, with both Iowa and New Hampshire offering stiff opposition to any break with tradition. "They've been very successful at sustaining their front position."

By Boyd Huppert, KARE 11 News

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