Small-town USA sees big-time turnout at polls
ARTWICK, Iowa - Main Street, all of five storefronts long, was percolating with political activity last night.
On one side of the street, 11 Republicans gathered at the community coffeeshop -lending library, where farmers usually meet in the mornings to talk corn prices over Folgers.
On the other side of the street, 15 Democrats sat around a table in the pink-walled meeting room beside the fire station, where the volunteer brigade holds its pancake breakfasts.
As in caucuses all over Iowa last night, the residents of this tiny town of 115 kicked around the various presidential candidates, and a truckload of issues, for a long while before they made their decisions. In previous years, a showing of 10 voters at each caucus was considered a great success.
On the Republican side of the street, John Van Buren kicked off proceedings shortly after 7 p.m. with a speech for his candidate.
''After Pat left, I had a choice,'' said Van Buren a Department of Transportation worker, referring to Patrick J. Buchanan, who abandoned the GOP race to pursue the Reform Party nomination. Van Buren, whose wife, Judy, chaired the caucus, calls all the candidates by their first names.
''Either I could go to the Reform Party with him or stick to the Republicans, and I decided to stick with the Republicans. And I'm supporting Gary Bauer. Gary's a strong social conservative.''
But while the others conceded that Bauer seemed a decent man and that his uncompromising position against abortion was most appealing, they said they did not want to waste their votes; they wanted somebody who could win.
So, grudgingly, they moved toward Texas Governor George W. Bush. In Hartwick, and across the state, Bush was the story of the night.
''He's electable,'' said Robert Nowotny, 28. ''Probably none of us here like everything about him.'' He did not seem firm enough on abortion, they agreed. Some of them said he did not seem trustworthy.
''I think you have to go with the most electable person. And Bush is the most electable at this point,'' said Kim Sleeuwenhoek, 40, who has lived in Hartwick since 1968, but attended her first caucus last night so that her children could see how this Iowan brand of democracy works.
John Van Buren did allow that his candidate was probably not the most likely to succeed. He could live with it if the others wanted Bush or any of the others.
Except one.
'' I want to make a comment about another person on here,'' Van Buren said. ''John McCain. He snubbed Iowa in the straw poll. He came out here and said he would not support ethanol, and I would put ethanol as a platform issue. He was truthful in saying what he said, but that's such a big issue for me, and all the farmers here, I cannot support him.''
So strongly did these Republicans feel about ethanol that they voted to suggest that this year's GOP party platform affirm ''that the federal government mandate for all states to use ethanol as one form of fuel.''
Other suggestions for the platform included a requirement that the surplus be used to pay down the national debt and that the tax system be simplified.
In the end, these Republicans went with Bush. Bauer got two votes, and Steve Forbes, who had polled well in Iowa in recent weeks, received one.
Among the Democrats, where residents moved to each end of the room in support of Vice President Al Gore or former senator Bill Bradley, the vote was a swift affair. And close.
Eight people moved to the Gore side of the table. Seven headed in the other direction. Then both choirs preached to each other.
''In everything I've ever done, experience counts,'' Dr. Oliver Larkin said. ''Gore has experience. He doesn't have flash like Clinton has flash, but sometimes that's not a good thing.''
So, according to the byzantine rules of the Democratic caucus, Hartwick would send one Bradley delegate and two Gore delegates to the county convention March 25.
Now came the difficult part: choosing those delegates.
It was one thing to show up and spend an hour or so choosing candidates and party planks, but committing to attend the county convention? That's quite another thing.
''We need two of you to take it further,'' pleaded teacher Kathy Fredericks, 49, to the Gore following. Fredericks organized this caucus and spent hours making calls to bring last night's triumphant turnout. ''I know some of you are saying, `Gee, we got here, that was a giant step.' But we need you to take another step. We just need that involvement.''
And then she brought out the reinforcements.
''Think of Kennedy,'' she said. ''Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.''
''I don't like to go out at night alone,'' said Hila Greider, a member of the Bradley camp.
''We can't go Saturday,'' said Vernard Block, 73. ''We've got to go to Oskaloosa and get a ton of groceries. And we do that much volunteer work. ''
This was Block's first time at the caucus, though he's lived around the corner from the caucus site all his life. ''Pressure,'' he said, when asked why he showed.
In the end, he escaped delegate duty. Fredericks offered to go herself.
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