They Know How to Caucus

Organization is particularly important on the Democratic side because of the party's caucus rules. The winner is selected not by total votes, but by the delegates accumulated in each of the 2,000-plus precincts. Because there is a predetermined number of delegates in each precinct, who then get apportioned based on the votes for each candidate, campaigns cannot compensate for falling behind in some areas by running up big totals in others.

Instead, they must build a base of support statewide. And because the rules also require that a candidate win 15 percent in a precinct to get any delegates, campaigns must be ready to make a last-minute play for supporters of those who miss that bar. All of this means gathering support precinct by precinct, voter by voter -- campaigning at its most elemental.

Working within such a limited universe of voters presents Iowa campaigns with a perennial challenge: deciding whether to focus on reliable participants, or trying to discover a whole new cohort of voters. Pat Robertson demonstrated the potential in venturing into new territory during the 1988 GOP caucus, when his big draw among religious conservatives who had not caucused before vaulted him to second place.

But few have been able to duplicate his success. As Romney's Gross sees it, it is best to go after party regulars. "What you're getting into here is a college student-council race. You have to get the big sororities and fraternities to show up for you," says the genial 52-year-old, whose 20th-story office looks across at the state Capitol's gold dome. "The rest of the people won't even know what's going on."

To accomplish this, the Romney campaign is, among other things, paying 58 "supervolunteers" in the state up to $1,000 per month, an unheard-of step this early in a caucus campaign. "It's a fairly nominal amount, and we get a better response out of our volunteers," Gross said.

McCain's camp says local Republicans have confided that they would be backing the Arizona senator but are going with Romney because they need the cash. "They're there for the money," said Chuck Larson, McCain's Iowa manager. "I would describe it as shallow support."

The McCain campaign is taking a more traditional approach, with a focus on signing up well-known conservative leaders in the state to win over Republicans who may regard the senator as too much of a maverick. "Activists are going to look under the hood, and it gives us credibility when people they trust are going to make the decisions," said Larson, a former state senator who spent a year in Iraq with the Army Reserve, acting as a liaison to sheiks in the Sunni Triangle.

One big get was Roederer, a wiry 56-year-old who likes to emphasize campaign basics. ("It bothers me to see people put up yard signs wrong, not perpendicular to the street," he says.) A party loyalist, he was initially "not too crazy" about McCain, but Larson persuaded him to fly to Washington to quiz the senator, an exercise he found slightly awkward.

"I said to him, 'You're an American hero, and for me to be asking you these questions is kind of embarrassing,' " Roederer recalled. "He laughed and said, 'Oh, that's part of the process.' "

Giuliani has enlisted Jim Nussle, a former congressman and the 2006 GOP gubernatorial nominee, as his top Iowa consultant, paying his firm more than $33,000 in the first three months of this year. (Most Iowa managers earn around $8,000 per month, while state chairmen tend to be unpaid.) But, having entered the race after Romney and McCain, Giuliani has fewer Iowa-based organizers to choose from. That is a challenge also facing former senator Fred D. Thompson (R-Tenn.), who last week took a step toward entering the race. Thompson's camp has been trying to get the Iowa staff members for other candidates to switch, to no avail so far, say advisers with rival campaigns.

As for the risk a campaign takes in using outsiders, Roederer pointed to the headlines Giuliani's campaign suffered last month when it canceled an appearance at an Iowa farm after learning that the owners were not wealthy enough to serve as models for Giuliani's pitch against the estate tax.

"That's a completely out-of-state mindset," Roederer said. "In Iowa, you don't call up people and ask what their net worth is."