Midwestern States Hit Hard by Snow and Ice
By Anne E. Kornblut
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 2, 2007
DES MOINES, Dec. 1 -- And now for something else the Clinton campaign cannot control: the weather.
An ice storm moved across the Midwest on Saturday, forcing former president Bill Clinton to cancel an organizing event for his wife and requiring Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign to scramble to move the New York senator into place for a Democratic campaign event that night.
On the heels of a day in which a New Hampshire man took three Clinton field staff members and one volunteer hostage, weather woes were only a minor bump for the Clintons. But the snow, sleet and freezing rain, which crippled most of the Midwest and shut down the usually hardy Des Moines airport, offered a reminder that the weather plays more than a minor role in the state's presidential caucuses, scheduled for Jan. 3. Snow can keep thousands of people home, alter the demographics of the participating electorate and upend predictions about turnout.
"You just don't know who is going to show up and who isn't," said Gordon Fischer, a prominent Iowa Democrat who is supporting Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). "From a campaign standpoint, you've got to be prepared for it, and prepared to give people rides."
Campaigns are permitted to provide voters with transportation and child care on caucus night, Fischer said.
Numerous accidents were reported on state highways, but Teresa Vilmain, the veteran Iowa organizer running the effort here for Clinton, said she expects Iowans to do a better job braving the weather than did the candidates and hundreds of political strategists and reporters on Saturday.
"It's Iowa," Vilmain said. "We're prepared for it because we're used to it." And while events over the weekend required a "planes, trains and automobiles" effort by the candidates and their supporters to trek hundreds of miles, the caucuses mostly take place in Iowans' neighborhoods, Vilmain said.
The storm hit hard around the Midwest, and the National Weather Service posted winter storm and ice warnings in eight states. More than 150 flight cancellations were reported at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, and many parts of Minnesota faced difficult driving conditions by early afternoon, the Associated Press reported.
In Iowa, along with the Clinton cancellation, two major Democratic events -- the Heartland Forum and the Black & Brown Forum -- were sent into disarray by the storm, although former senator John Edwards (D-N.C.) "hit all his events on time with grace and style," spokesman Eric Schultz said. Mitt Romney (R), the former Massachusetts governor, canceled events in the southern part of the state.
The storm caused power blackouts Saturday for hundreds around Iowa, but on Jan. 3, the caucuses will go on -- no matter what. Advisers to several candidates said they could not remember when weather had forced a change. It could even serve as a test of enthusiasm, Fischer said.
"Your candidate has to inspire passions," he said. "You've got to be able to motivate people on a date and time certain to go out and stand up publicly for the candidate of your choice no matter what the weather is -- and there I believe Obama has a distinct advantage."
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