January 25, 2000

Democratic caucus events culminate
at the Hotel Fort Des Moines

By Victoria Carrington
CyberCaucus 2000 News Service
Drake University

DES MOINES, Iowa -- After an extensive campaign, which included stops in Maquoketa, Dubuque, Cedar Rapids, Mount Vernon and Iowa City, former Sen. Bill Bradley's campaign culminated Monday night at the Hotel Fort Des Moines.

Polk County's Precinct 64 held its Democratic caucus at the Hotel Fort Des Moines and went into action shortly after 7 p.m, with 127 caucus members in attendance. Vice President Al Gore's supporters were counted at 73 and Bradley received a count of 53, leaving one person undecided. The results were calculated at 3.4 for Gore and 2.52 for Bradley, and after rounding off the results, the delegates were equally split, giving three to each candidate.

Lauris Olson, who participated in the caucus as a Bradley supporter, said, "It was good. I think that's the best we could hope for this early."

At 7:45 p.m., the first statewide caucus results were in and tabulated, and Voter.com announced the results in the press room, showing Gore at 64.54 percent and Bradley with 33.97 percent. At 9:15 p.m., Gore had dropped to 61 percent and Bradley jumped to 39 percent. When the final results came in, Gore had 63.43 percent and Bradley had captured 34.91 percent.

There was a large turnout of Bradley supporters, leaving little standing room for spectators when Bradley arrived at the hotel at 10 p.m.

Bradley told supporters in a speech that he is confident he can win and confident he can do the job. He concluded the speech saying he was ready for his flight to New Hampshire--"to carry the fight there" in that state's primary.

As Bradley left the building, he extended his thanks to the staff and to students at Drake University who hosted a rally on campus for him on the previous evening. "Thank you very much for your tremendous effort. Last night was the best event of the whole campaign. It was just wonderful support," Bradley said.

The Gore campaign bypassed the Democratic headquarters at the Hotel Fort Des Moines and went to the Iowa fairgounds at the close of the caucus.

According to the Democrats, the Iowa caucuses drew more than 550 news media organizations from all over the world, including CNN, the Washington Post and foreign news organizations.

Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack was on hand and estimated the caucus brought in millions of dollars in revenues for the state of Iowa.

Vilsack said, "It's a tremendous economic opportunity of the state, particularly if you factor in the value of free publicity. For example, NBC news did a show on the changing Iowa economy as it's moving away from farm families to businesses. You can't buy publicity like that. So it's a tremendous benefit to the state."

In addition to the publicity, the caucus injects cash into Iowa hotels and restaurants. Technical and staff people are hired to prepare sites for events and take them down again after the caucus ends.

"Just to give an example, NBC News spent $5,000 per show for the four shows at Terrace Hill [the governor's mansion]. So they gave a donation of $20,000 for the use of Terrace Hill for two days," Vilsack said.