Drama becomes farce in Iowa
Former South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg has emerged as the early leader in the Iowa caucuses, running ahead of independent Vermont senator Bernie Sanders and other top Democrats, according to partial results released yesterday after almost a day of delay and confusion.
While Buttigieg quickly declared himself the victor and tried to build momentum for his candidacy, the release of preliminary results from the beleaguered caucuses did little to contain the chaos that rocked the firstin-the-nation nominating contest – or to settle a jumbled field of Democrats vying to prove that they are the best candidate to defeat US President Donald Trump.
According to the early results, which represented 62 per cent of the state’s precincts, Buttigieg was leading with 26.9 per cent of the state’s delegates, followed by Sanders with 25.1 per cent.
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and former vice-president Joe Biden were in third and fourth place respectively with 18.3 per cent and 15.6 per cent – disappointing results for candidates who have sought to push the idea that they are the most electable.
The full results remained delayed after a complex caucus process plagued by technical difficulties, with no clear timeline for a resolution. The
Iowa Democratic Party said it was continuing to try to verify the results.
Despite the uncertainty, Buttigieg’s early showing could propel the historic candidacy of a 38-year-old who has pitched himself as the candidate best equipped to win back Rust Belt voters lost to Trump in 2016.
For his part, Sanders’ result sent a message to the Democratic Party about the hunger for an economic populist and the desire to upend the party’s establishment. Highlighted by Biden’s underperformance, the results have begun to reshape the already restless Democratic primary contest.
As they descended on secondvoting New Hampshire yesterday before the Iowa results were released, the contenders sought to strike an upbeat tone. ‘‘I’m someone that thrives in chaos,’’ Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar told supporters in Concord.
Warren’s distant third-place position solidified her retreat from the top of the polls last year. It was an underwhelming result for a candidate who had invested heavily in organising support in Iowa.
Lingering concerns about Biden’s sluggish campaign style, small crowds, mental missteps and middling fundraising could intensify as he seeks to temper expectations about a potential loss in New Hampshire.
Democratic National Committee (DNC) chairman Tom Perez said he wanted ‘‘absolute transparent accounting’’ of the technological meltdown that led to the delayed results, as it was ‘‘clear’’ that the phone app used to tally the caucus results had failed. He said the party had staff ‘‘working around the clock’’ to help count the remaining votes.
Nevada Democrats have scrapped plans to use similar technology at their caucuses several weeks from now.
The little-known technology startup under scrutiny was founded little more than a year ago by veterans of Hillary Clinton’s failed 2016 presidential run who had presented themselves as gurus of campaigning in the digital era. Shadow Inc was picked in secret by the Iowa Democratic Party after its leaders consulted with the DNC on vetting vendors and security protocols for developing an app to gather and tabulate the caucus results.
Party officials in Iowa blamed an unspecified ‘‘coding issue’’ with the software that led to it producing only partial and unreliable results.