Iowa caucus results not eye opening

Alicia Robinson

If you ask local Democrats, Monday’s Iowa caucus didn’t go far toward

determining who will get their party’s nomination to face President

Bush in the November election.

“I was quite surprised that [Massachusetts Sen. John] Kerry did as

well as he did,” said Carl Mariz, who is running for the 70th

Assembly District seat now held by John Campbell.

Mariz said he expected former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean to finish

at least second in Iowa. After weeks as the front-runner, Dean fell

to third place behind Kerry, who finished first, and North Carolina

Sen. John Edwards,who placed second.

Eleanor Klein, president of the Democratic Club of West Orange

County, said she was a Dean supporter and would probably stay one,

but she was favorably impressed by Edwards, who vowed to avoid

negative campaigning.

“He had a very upbeat message,” said Klein, a Costa Mesa resident.

“He just tends to stress the hopeful and the optimistic, and I think

that really resonates with people right now.”

Mariz said he has given financial support to Reps. Dick Gephardt

and Dennis Kucinich.

“At this point, I’m for [Wesley] Clark,” Mariz said. “I really

like Kucinich, but it looks like he can’t get any traction.”

In the undecided camp are Katrina Foley, a Costa Mesa planning

commissioner; Costa Mesa attorney Jim Toledano, a former chair of the

Orange County Democratic Party; and attorney Richard Taylor, who ran

unsuccessfully for Newport Beach City Council in 2002.

“I remain woefully unimpressed by the whole lot,” Taylor said of

the candidates. “It’s kind of like watching a slow-motion car

accident.”

The caucus was valuable in that it put the candidates under some

stress and that voters got to see how they held up, Toledano said.

“It was interesting to see [that] Dean’s attraction seemed to have

diminished over the course of his getting greater and greater

exposure,” he said.

Foley said she thinks Iowa was important because it led Gephardt,

previously a major contender, to drop out of the race on Tuesday.

“What I was most impressed by with the Iowa caucus was the record

numbers of voters that turned out,” said Foley, who watched C-SPAN’s

broadcast of the caucus.

“I think it sends a very strong message that the Democrats that

are voting are taking this election very seriously,” she said.

Upcoming primaries in New York and California will help shake out

who’s going to clinch the party’s nomination, Taylor said. Iowa

doesn’t necessarily make or break a candidate, and former President

Bill Clinton is a perfect example, Taylor said. Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin

won overwhelmingly in his home state caucus in 1992, but Clinton

rebounded in New Hampshire a week later.

Others thought New Hampshire’s primary on Tuesday might be a

turning point for Dean and Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, who along

with Clark skipped Iowa to focus on the eastern state.

While they hold a variety opinions on the seven remaining

candidates, one thing local Democrats agree on is that one of theirs

can win the White House.

“I think Bush is going to get beaten and he’s going to get beaten

rather soundly,” Toledano said.

Bush has won approval from many voters for fighting terrorism and

has passed some key initiatives, such as a prescription drug bill for

seniors, and he has more fundraising clout as an incumbent president.

But Democrats said his handling of Iraq and the country’s dismal

employment situation would wound him enough for the right candidate

to finish him off.

Some might think no Democrat can beat a sitting president who

brought the country through a war, but Foley disagreed.

“It happened to George Bush Sr., didn’t it?” she said.