Iowa’s first-in-the-nation status unjustified

Gov. Ted Strickland is dead-on with his opinion that beginning the presidential nominating process with a caucus in Iowa “makes no sense.”

Strickland, a Democrat formerly of Lisbon, recently told The Columbus Dispatch that Iowa “is not a representative state and the caucus is not a fair way to register public opinion, in my judgment.”

There are those who say Strickland’s timing was terrible. He made the comments before Thursday’s Iowa caucus. U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, whom Strickland endorsed for president, was quick to disagree with his comments on Iowa.

I doubt Strickland’s honest statements had any impact on the caucus.

But it’s about time someone of Strickland’s prominence — governor of one of the nation’s largest states and one that will play a huge role in the general election — said what many believe.

There is no reason for the presidential nominating process to begin in Iowa, a state with only 7 of the nation’s 538 electoral votes. New Hampshire, the first state with a primary, has 4 electoral votes.

For some reason national Republican and Democratic leaders are afraid of what would happen if these two small states — that will become virtually insignificant in a week or so to the presidential race — don’t go first.

There are plenty of other Midwest states that, unlike Iowa, reflect the nation’s demographics, and should be among the first when it comes to primaries and caucuses.

It would be easy to say Ohio with its 20 electoral votes should go first and perhaps it should. Ohio’s been a bellwether state for the presidential election for decades.

If not Ohio, there’s Illinois with 21 electoral votes, Michigan with 17, Missouri with 11, and Wisconsin with 10.

Iowa and New Hampshire have played key roles in determining the next president. But the primary reason for that is timing. Candidates gain momentum from winning the early states so it doesn’t matter if it’s Iowa and New Hampshire or if it’s Mississippi and North Dakota.

Strickland also has legitimate concerns about the caucus process in Iowa.

Democrats in Iowa on Thursday selected delegates to the state’s county conventions who will then select district convention delegates who will then pick most of the state’s delegates to the national convention. At Thursday’s caucus, Iowa Republicans started a process that is quicker than Democrats. Republicans picked county convention delegates who will then pick national convention delegates.

U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th, campaigned for U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd, whom he endorsed, twice in Iowa.

While not critical of the process, Ryan compared campaigning in Iowa to “hand-to-hand combat.”

Ryan said he’d talk to six or seven voters at a time about Dodd and then followed up with the small groups. Ryan’s comments indicate they’re a fickle bunch.

“You spend time with these folks,” he said. “... People fall in love with a candidate two times, break up and go to another candidate and then to someone else.”

Presidential candidates and their supporters spend far too much time in Iowa and/or New Hampshire while virtually ignoring far larger and more important states. Candidates need to show their strength in early primaries and caucuses, but the process in place certainly needs to be overhauled.

As Strickland told The Dispatch, “I’d like to see both parties say, ‘We’re going to bring this to an end.’”

Unfortunately, leaders of both parties have failed to show the initiative or nerve to do anything differently.