It's just so heartwarming to know that what the rest of us thought for so many months had something to do with choosing party nominees for president of the United States was, for a very large majority of the quarter-million Iowans who caucused, actually a whole lot of fun.
The random telephone poll of 306 Democratic and 223 Republican caucusgoers between Jan. 5 and 10 found, according to David Redlawsk, poll director: "Iowans didn't caucus just for the fun of it, but most seem to have discovered the fun factor in caucusing."
It was the first caucus for nearly half of those surveyed, many of whom said they caucused to oppose one candidate rather than support one. Across parties, nearly all said they attended because it was the "right thing to do," 89% to support a candidate, 27% to oppose a candidate and 19% because someone asked them to go.
While 86% reported having fun, only 26% listed fun as their reason for going.
Oh, and despite their more complex, often chaotic voting procedures, more Democrats (88%) reported "having fun" than Republicans (83%).
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Times staff writer Dan Morain contributed to this report.
Excerpted from The Times' political blog, Top of the Ticket, at www.latimes.com/ topoftheticket.
