“State Representative and gubernatorial candidate Ed Fallon (D-Des Moines) announced during a Wednesday afternoon press conference that he expects to send over 1,300 delegates to county party conventions on March 4 and 11.
“These results are very encouraging,” Fallon said. “For caucuses, we were able to have an organizational presence in over 500 precincts, and 408 Iowans came forward to be precinct captains. Rank and file Iowans are going to be the key to my grassroots campaign, and their passion for the bread and butter issues like clean elections, fully funded education, universal health care, and better environmental protection are what will take this campaign to the next level.”"
Interesting. That’s quite a substantial amount of delegates to be expecting with only 400 delegates or people going to the county conventions for him. To get to 1300, the number of delegates would have to triple.
The Register has a write-up of yesterday’s Fallon press conference (including fundraising information–claimed to raise $110,000) and the above announcement:
“Fallon said he raised $110,000 last year, compared with an amount four times greater that one of his opponents spent last year. He said he registered support among party activists in Monday’s precinct caucuses, which he said is the real measure of his campaign’s viability.
[…]But only Fallon claimed to have benefited most from the caucuses, seldom used as a measure of strength outside of presidential election years.
He said he had signed up precinct captains, neighborhood-level organizers, in 408 of the 1,887 precincts holding caucuses on Monday, with at least some organized following in at least 500 of those precincts. Another key number he threw out: 1,200 campaign volunteers. None of those figures was independently verifiable Wednesday.”
The fact that the numbers weren’t independently verifiable is probably the most important thing to remember. That means the other campaigns or the IDP haven’t given out any other information that’d affect this judgment–and no one should expect they should. Just look at John Deeth–they’re still unpacking things and getting it organized in Johnson County.
Fallon’s numbers, while impressive, have nothing to be compared to. Nevertheless, the momentum they have coming out of the caucuses is quite positive, and I’d expect to hear a few more announcements from the camp in the next couple of weeks.
Kyle, a staffer on Fallon’s campaign, has a bit more on the announcement here, along with some of his thoughts on the caucuses and other candidates in general. Definitely an interesting read.
“Interesting. That’s quite a substantial amount of delegates to be expecting with only 400 delegates or people going to the county conventions for him. To get to 1300, the number of delegates would have to triple.”
Fallon has volunteers in 408 precints organizing and canvassing. This people have volunteered to make phone calls and go door to do and distribute materials. This is not connected with the caucuses. I am a precint captain for the Fallon campaign and have been since September.
In the caucuses, it was reported by Fallon supporters who attended that they have 1,300 delegates elected. For example, in one precint in Ames a Fallon volunteer who is a precint captain for the campaign reported that all 11 of the delegates from her precint were Fallon supporters.