Iowa's Kicks Off first "Cattle Call" Big Event with All Dem Candidates Appearing Tonight--Politico

(Despite the terrible original "Click Bait Title" of this article (which I changed) the whole article is a good, fair read about the Big Event Tonight in Iowa bringing together All the Dem Candidates--I hope it will be on C-Span or at some other link. If anyone knows please post in thread.)



By Gabriel Debenedetti--"Politico" 7/17/15 5:14 AM EDT


Hillary Clinton has yet to mention her Democratic rivals — from surging Bernie Sanders to Lincoln “who?” Chafee — on the campaign trail.

She may not have a choice on Friday evening.

The dominating front-runner will descend on Cedar Rapids to join Sanders, her main opponent, and the party’s trio of other declared White House contenders in the first Democratic cattle call of the election cycle — an event that will put the spotlight on Clinton’s early-state organizing and Sanders’ ability to appeal to his party’s establishment.

Beyond the inherent Clinton-Sanders drama, a handful of subordinate story lines will also play out in the Cedar Rapids evening, as Martin O’Malley tests his Iowa-first strategy and Chafee and Jim Webb try to prove their relevance.

The Friday evening event will provide a clarifying moment for the Democratic Party, which has seen its power structure coalesce around Clinton and her enormous political operation while Sanders has sparked liberal fervor.

Republicans and their 15 (so far) presidential candidates often have several multi-candidate events each week — there’s one in Iowa this weekend — but the Cedar Rapids confab will mark the first time Democratic White House hopefuls are appearing together in public.

The quintet will each have their turn — which will come in alphabetical order by last name, from Chafee to Webb — and will be sitting in the audience for each other’s speeches. State and local Democratic officials expect them to join campaign staffers in canvassing the crowd and the area surrounding the convention center to rally support.

The spectacle comes as something of a relief to local officials, who were nervous before the campaign began that a lack of competition would harm the party’s finances and organization.

That worry has proven unfounded as Clinton, Sanders and O’Malley have built operations in the state, and Friday’s ceremony has sold out via tickets distributed by the state party and the campaigns.
-----------------

“It’s a big moment of excitement, because party activists are really used to these cattle-call events where the candidates are on an even basis,” explained Iowa City activist John Deeth. “This is the first, and one of the only ones, we’re going to see this year. So it’s going to feel like a real, ‘We’re in high gear now, and you’re going to have to make a decision’ moment.”

For Clinton, it will provide a chance to showcase her local infrastructure, and to prove to the influential activists in the crowd why she deserves to be so far ahead of her competition in polling and fundraising.

----------------

“People want to take O’Malley seriously, and in previous cycles, he would’ve been considered a serious candidate,” said Deeth. “But he’s in this unfortunate situation where Clinton is so many miles ahead of everybody else and Sanders has carved out this unique niche. It’s a real difficult strait to navigate, to be more progressive than Hillary but not as progressive as Sanders.”

For Chafee and Webb, who barely register in polling, the challenge is simpler still: Make people pay attention. If anyone is likely to attack Clinton by name it’s this pair, which has very little, if any, infrastructure in the early-voting states. While Chafee is currently on his first visit to Iowa as a candidate, Webb’s first Iowa state director quit in May.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/the-words-hillary-clinton-will-not-utter-120268.html#ixzz3gAHL7DTs