Iowans ready for spotlight to fade

After countless phone calls, mailings and pancakes, residents show signs of caucus fatigue. Tonight it will all be over.

NEWTON, IOWA - You know Iowans are becoming oversaturated with presidential politics when:

- People utter candidates' applause lines before the candidates say them.

- Folks at campaign rallies are at least as interested in watching George Stephanopoulos or Tom Brokaw in the back of the room as the candidates themselves.

These were common scenes in the final days before tonight's internationally watched Iowa caucuses.

For more than a year Democratic activists in the Hawkeye state have relished the attention lavished on them by presidential contenders. The candidates have spent millions of dollars, flipped untold numbers of pancakes and attended hundreds of meetings - all to win over what is expected to amount to about one-third of the more than 330,000 Pinellas County residents who voted in Florida's last governor's race.

Iowans take their first-in-the-nation contest seriously, studying position papers and regularly heading to community halls and coffee shops to personally quiz the candidates. Hundreds have packed meeting halls in recent days as the race turned into a four-way dead heat.

But for all the excitement, there are signs of caucus fatigue.

"Yesterday I had seven pieces of campaign literature when I got home in the afternoon. I had five phone messages, and I got three campaign calls that I picked up that afternoon," said Newton retiree Glenn Woody, a Howard Dean supporter. "I've stopped picking up the phone at night, but it keeps ringing. Mostly they don't leave messages, but you know it's the campaigns."

Minburn farmer Marvin Shirley ticked off his voter-education efforts the other day.

"I've seen (Massachusetts Sen. John) Kerry three times, (Missouri Rep. Dick) Gephardt twice, (North Carolina Sen. John) Edwards twice, (Ohio Rep. Dennis) Kucinich once, and (Florida Sen. Bob) Graham once. And I saw them all together at the last debate and at the party's Jefferson-Jackson dinner," said Shirley, who last week settled on Edwards as his top choice.

"I enjoy it, obviously," he said. "But it's time for it to be over."

The contest has become a free-for-all between former Vermont Gov. Dean, Edwards, Gephardt and Kerry. A Des Moines Register poll released Sunday showed onetime underdog Kerry now leading the field with support from 26 percent of likely caucusgoers, compared to 23 percent for Edwards, 20 percent for Dean and 18 percent for Gephardt.

The final week surges of Kerry and Edwards are drawing hundreds of people to their events, even in small towns. Many Democrats expect turnout could double from the roughly 60,000 Democrats who turned out in 2000.

And many say they'll be glad Tuesday when their phones stop ringing incessantly. The calls are recordings from the candidates and from the likes of Sen. Tom Harkin (for Dean) and Sen. Edward Kennedy (for Kerry) and from campaign staffers and union organizers. One undecided voter said Gephardt had personally phoned her twice in the past few days.

At a Gephardt rally in a Newton union hall Sunday, another undecided Democrat, Linda Kirchhoff, said she'll be sorry to see the "wonderful" attention end. Her husband's a different story.

"He gets so tired of these campaigns calling every day, he's started just hanging right up on them," she admitted.

On the radio, between updates on soy and pork prices, Iowans constantly hear Dean promising to take back America. On TV, the campaign ads are relentless. By tonight, the campaigns are expected to have spent about $100 on TV spots per every person who turns out at 1,993 neighborhood caucus meetings.

Then there are the thousands of out-of-state volunteers knocking on doors.

Elderly Iowa Democrats tend to view the army of generation X-ers touting Dean a couple of different ways. Many find the enthusiasm of these youngsters inspiring.

Others react like retiree JoAnn DeCamp of Adel: "That's fine that Howard appeals to all these young kids, but I don't need them telling me what America needs. It's us old folks that pay the taxes."

The nature of the campaign in Iowa dramatically changed as the caucuses approached. Gone are the quaint living room gatherings of a dozen neighbors talking to potential leaders of the free world.

Instead, the candidates are surrounded by seas of cameras and boom microphones. Rope lines and aggressive campaign staffers keep the candidates protected from reporters' questions.

When Kerry showed up in Des Moines to court some of Iowa's few African-American voters Saturday, media representatives outnumbered voters at least 3-1. Kerry had a tearful reunion with a Green Beret soldier he had saved in Vietnam and whom he hadn't seen in 35 years.

It was an intensely personal moment - except for the 12-foot-deep scrum of photographers surrounding them.

Iowans have come to understand what the vast media presence means. The world's attention is on the verge of leaving Iowa's frozen corn fields and heading to New Hampshire, which hold its primary Jan. 27.

Then again, the political spotlight never leaves Iowa for long.

On the schedule for the Jan. 29 annual dinner of the Greater Des Moines Partnership business group: former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a potential Republican presidential candidate in 2008.

- Adam C. Smith can be reached at 727 893-8241 or adam@sptimes.com

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