Precinct’s Pick Wins Again

Ward 4 in Waverly, Iowa, continued its long-running knack for picking winners in the Iowa caucuses when Sen. John F. Kerry became the top choice among its 147 Democratic participants.

The precinct that chose Al Gore in the 2000 caucuses and general election narrowly gave its support to the Massachusetts senator, who was supported by 47 at the caucus, held at Waverly Shell Cross High School.

The precinct bucked the rest of the state, however, by placing Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt in second place, with 45 votes. Gephardt finished a distant fourth in statewide tallies. Waverly proved to be like the rest of Iowa in another sense -- with about twice as many voters turning out to caucus Monday as those who did in 2000. Many at the precinct in the northeast Iowa town of 9,000 were new to the process -- with 65 registering the same day to participate in the caucus.

Under the complicated formula for choosing delegates, Kerry took away four delegates, Gephardt three delegates, Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean two delegates each.

“I think the dog fight between Gephardt and Dean really hurt both of them,” said Art Hessburg, who led the Ward 4 caucus and supported Dean. “I talked to several Kerry and Edwards people. They were deciding just in the last few days, and they would tell you they didn’t like the negative stuff.”