I'm sitting here on our 28th day in Iowa (as campaign manager for the
Draft Gore 2008 PAC) patiently waiting as the votes are counted over a long lunch in DC. Lo and behold, as I just refreshed the Hotline page, the announcement
came through:
Live From The DNC's RBC Meeting... The Envelope Please
At the end, it wasn't even close: NV's the Caucus state and SC's the primary state. Here's the vote breakdown: it's worth noting that Harold Ickes and Donna Brazile both were pro-AL and AL still lost. Whodathunkthat...
The vote totals:
NV -- 20 -- Dawson, Flournoy, Khare Fowler, Germond, Griffin, Huffman, Hynes, Ickes, Katz, King, Kleinfeld, McDonald, Pasquil, Shay, Smith, Steed, Stroschein, Ward, Segovia, Johnson (by proxy).
AZ -- 5 -- Fowler, Gonzales, Kamarck, Peterson, Reiley
DC -- 2 -- Brazile, Sullivan
MI -- 1 -- Brewer
SC -- 22 -- Dawson, Flournoy, Fowler, Khare Fowler, Gonzalez, Griffin, Huffman, Hynes, Kamarck, Katz, King, Kleinfeld, McDonald, Pasquil, Pederson, Reiley, Shay, Steed, Stroschein, Sullivan, Ward, Segovia.
AL -- 5 -- Brazile, Germond, Ickes, Johnson, Smith.
So it's Nevada. Not as warm and toasty as Arizona, but the strong labor component certainly helped swing the vote.
According to Hotline, the 2008 Democratic nominating calendar looks like this:
Iowa's caucus could be held on Monday, January 14th or Monday, January 21st. If the caucuses are held the 14th, Nevada caucuses on 1/19, New Hampshire holds its primary on 1/22 and South Carolina primaries on 1/29. The window for other states to hold their primaries would open 2/5.
If Iowa waits until the 21st, Nevada would meet on 1/26. New Hampshire would vote 1/29, while South Carolina would vote on Groundhog Day, 2/2. The window would still open 2/5.
Much of the calendar is already set, thanks to laws in various states. Those dates are being made available by the DNC later today.
I know a lot of people around dKos really dislike Iowa's primacy, but after the time I've spent here, I'm comfortable with it.
Of course, now we'll have to see how New Hampshire handles the news.
Update: Hotline says Iowa will be Monday, January 14. I was hoping for 1/21, as University of Iowa students don't return from classes until that that day. It is also Martin Luther King Jr. Day (might have had a role in the decision.)