Iowa's system of choosing delegates to the national convention is a multi-step process. Their caucuses on Jan. 3 was just the first step. This Saturday is the 2nd step, the county conventions.
Those delegates won on Jan 3 were elected to go to the county conventions that are being held this weekend. From these county conventions, delegates will be elected to attend the Congressional District conventions next month and the State convention in June. The delegates are not guaranteed to remain committed to the candidates who won them on Jan 3. In order to maintain their delegates, the candidates must keep their delegates "rounded up".
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In Iowa, precinct caucuses were held Jan. 3 to select delegates to county conventions this weekend. The county conventions will select delegates to congressional district conventions in April and the state convention in June.
National delegates are elected at the congressional district and state conventions _ the third step of the process. If all the delegates for each candidate show up at every step, the national delegates awarded Jan. 3 will remain unchanged.
But if one side is unable to rally its supporters at any step along the way, it risks losing national delegates.
Obama won the Iowa caucuses in January, picking up 16 national delegates. Clinton came in third, winning 15. Under Iowa's quirky system, Clinton won one more delegate than Edwards, even though Edwards got the second most votes.
Edwards' delegates _ and the chance to win them over _ will add intrigue to the Iowa conventions.
"Absolutely they're fair game," said Karen Hicks, a senior adviser to the Clinton campaign. "We are reaching out to a lot of them, trying to persuade them to join our team."
Both campaigns have been working behind the scenes in Iowa for several weeks, rallying supporters to attend the conventions on Saturday.
"We are doing what we can to make sure we hold onto all the Obama folks," said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton..."
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/12/its-back-to-iowa-for-ro_n_91226.htmlConfused yet? It looks like we're going to run into this in most/all of the caucus states...
Something to keep us busy between now & PA - we have Iowa, Texas & Nevada between now and PA.