Page 27 - Caucus System News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

The caucus process came out of democratic party reforms in light of the 1968 convention. the idea was, we don't want to sigh any smoke-filled rooms. >> iowa caucus historian, jeff stein, said that led to big changes in his state. >> for 1972, they decided to elongate the process, start picking delegates at precinct level, then the county and then the state and to the national connection. -- national convention. so there was citizen input from the start itch the new, elongated process, required iowa democrats to hold their first round of caucuses in 20,000 or so precincts, much earlier than bef...

>> the caucus process came out of democratic party reforms in light of the 1968 convention. the idea was we don't want to see any more smoke filled rooms. >> iowa kcaucus historian said that led to big changes for his state. >> in 1972 they decided to elongate the process, start picking delegates at the precinct level, then the county then the state and finally to the national convention so there was citizen input from the start. >> that new elongated process required iowa democrats to hold their first round of caucuses in 2000 or so precincts much earlier than before. they scheduled them firs...

Chosen. >> nobody knew what they were doing, the caucus system, nobody was contesting it really, very much. >> in 1972, pat caddell was a pollster for george mcgovern's campaign. mcgovern was polling at 5% nationally, months before the caucuses. >> so the game in iowa was -- to exceed what you expect people will do, give money, support and momentum. >> mcgovern was second behind the frontrunner and won the nomination. then lost to republican richard nixon by a landslide. gerald ford replaced nixon after watergate and in 1976, iowa republicans move there'd caucus to the same day as democrats to...

Chosen. >> nobody knew what they were doing, the caucus system, nobody was contesting it really, very much. >> in 1972, pat caddell was a pollster for george mcgovern's campaign. mcgovern was polling at 5% nationally, months before the caucuses. >> so the game in iowa was -- to exceed what you expect people will do, give money, support and momentum. >> mcgovern was second behind the frontrunner and won the nomination. then lost to republican richard nixon by a landslide. gerald ford replaced nixon after watergate and in 1976, iowa republicans move there'd caucus to the same day as democrats to...

we have a very, very important issue here. why is that important? the primary here, the first in the nation is the window through which the american public begin to understand the candidates, who they are, what they stand for, and their vision for a better america. and you begin to jeopardize that process by other states like nevada most recently leap frogging in the process, making new hampshire virtually irrelevant as you move it forward. that's totally nonsense, we're going to stand with the people of new hampshire on this, we're going to speak out locally and vocally. we've chose...