November 4, 1999

Local businesses experience minimal changes
with caucus rescheduling

By Becki White
Cyber Caucus 2000 News Service
Drake University

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Two things Iowans can expect when the caucuses roll around every four years are cold weather and changing dates. This year is no exception.

The date for the 2000 caucuses was originally set for Feb. 21. Early this year, the Iowa Republicans decided to move the date of Iowa's 2,142 precinct caucuses two weeks earlier than planned to Feb. 7, and the Democrats quickly agreed. That date then changed to Jan. 31, and it was recently moved again to Jan. 24.

Most local businesses were prepared for the changes that are so often synonymous with the caucuses. "We just watch the papers every day with any news on the dates," said Matt Boehnke, who is in charge of caucus relations at the Hotel Ft. Des Moines downtown.

The Iowa Democratic Party reserved the hotel's ballroom for its headquarters on caucus day. Boehnke said he anticipated the changing dates and tried to keep the ballrooms free on the varying days. "We were in contact with (the Iowa Democratic Party) even when a whisper of a new caucus date came up," he said.

The Democratic Party was able to keep its reservation for the new date. "We lucked out for the location of our headquarters," Shannon Tesdahl, communications director for the party, said. "But across the state they still have to find places for the caucuses to be held."

The Democratic Party chairperson of each county is in charge of finding the caucus location, which is usually in a library, church or school. "With the date change, obviously they had to reconfirm these locations," Tesdahl explained.

She said because the change was last minute, people were "scrambling" to find and confirm locations for the caucuses.

Andrea Cerwinske, organizational director of the Iowa Republican Party, said there weren't too many problems with reservations at the county level for the Republican caucuses. "(The county chairpersons) were kind of upset," she said. "But in most counties, caucuses are held at the same place every year."

However, Cerwinske said the Iowa Republican Party was not so lucky when searching for a place to house its headquarters. Originally, the party reserved the Polk County Convention Center. The center was booked on the new date Jan. 24, which forced the party to search for another option.

"At first we found a problem trying to find a venue that would hold such a big event," Cerwinske said. The party ended up reserving Drake's Knapp Center for headquarters on the new caucus date.

In addition to housing the Democratic headquarters, the Hotel Ft. Des Moines also had to adjust to changing reservations from the various campaigns and media.

Boehnke said the Hotel Ft. Des Moines held several private rooms two to three weeks before the proposed caucus date because most journalists and members of campaigns come in advance. As a result, a large block of rooms was already being held and Boehnke said he ran into few problems rebooking the hotel for the new date.

He said he imagines holding the rooms for the additional weeks may have hurt business, but there's no way of telling right now.

"Traditionally, January is not the busiest. All the news people tell me they just can't wait to see Iowa in January!" Boehnke said. The Hotel Ft. Des Moines is currently booked for the week leading up to the caucuses.

Boehnke said most of the major news networks and the various campaigns have made their final reservations for hotel rooms across the state. "(They) are taken care of," he said. "Now we're receiving calls from smaller networks and foreign journalists."

Sara Payne from the Iowa Caucus Project said she ran into few frustrations from the media in response to the four date changes. The project helps connect the media to the state of Iowa by providing information and helping with hotel reservations.

"(The media) were just anxious to get things done," Payne said. "We just wanted the date nailed down so we could help reporters solidify when they were going to be here."

Boehnke said he experienced similar responses. "A lot of them right now are journalists," he said. "If they cover the political market, they're used to change."