Total number of votes among Iowa republicans only half the number who turned out for Dems in '08

1/3/12 10:54 PM

The total number of votes among Iowa Republicans was expected to be about 120,000 — only half of the 239,000 Iowans who turned out to back Obama, Hillary Clinton and other Democrats last time.

Romney and his backers spent millions in combined campaign and PAC ad spending, but the Massachusetts governor scored only about a quarter of the caucus vote, giving Team Obama a first chance to analyze a possible opponent’s weaknesses in the first live-fire political drill of the 2012 campaign.

Romney “started the race with a quarter. Ended with a quarter. Four years later, he didn’t add any votes, despite a vigorous commitment of time and money down the stretch. All after taking a victory lap over the weekend,” said Obama senior campaign strategist David Axelrod. “You’d have to say the story is: Iowa to Mitt. No sale. Beyond that, for all the patter about GOP enthusiasm, turnout was unimpressive.”

Obama campaign manager Jim Messina said GOP turnout was roughly the same as in 2008. “Where’s the enthusiasm?” he asked. “I guess a ground game does matter.”


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