Essential Estrogen

Although there might not be a big rally planned for tonight or any former presidents walking down Main Street, the Hawkeye State has once again become a hotbed of national Democratic political activity.

Tomorrow is the day of Democratic county conventions. While these take place for both Republicans and Democrats throughout the state after every Iowa caucus, most activists cannot remember a time when the results of the conventions could play such an important national role. The caucuses, while highly publicized as the first national pulse in presidential politics, are not the actual mechanism by which delegates to the Democratic National Convention are selected. The selection will take place at the upcoming conventions -- county conventions scheduled for Saturday being the first.

Individuals selected on caucus night to be delegates and alternates to county convention are being targeted once again by presidential hopefuls. Delegates receiving the most attention, however, are those who are currently aligned with former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards. Because no delegates are beholden to their caucus night choice and also because Edwards has dropped from the race, the campaigns for New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama are both focusing on Edwards delegates in an attempt to increase their own number of national delegates.

As previously reported, the grassroots campaign built in Iowa by the Obama campaign is back in action. For at least the past two weeks, the Obama team has been making contact with convention delegates and alternates to impress upon them the importance of going to their respective county conventions. This week the Clinton campaign also began making its presence known in Iowa once again. Field directors have returned to their caucus areas, local supporters have phoned Edwards delegates to request support and, just yesterday, an automated phone call by Sen. Clinton herself went out to Iowans:

The robocall was followed by another on Thursday night that asked recipients to participate in a conference call on Friday. Once the proper response was entered by keypad, those phoned were told they'd receive a call from a human that provided further information on the conference call. As of 10 a.m. Friday morning, none of our sources who had agreed to participate in the conference call had received further information.

It is unclear how Edwards delegates will align at county conventions. Edwards has not endorsed either of the remaining two candidates and is not expected to do so prior to the convention. Edwards co-chairpersons Rob Tully and Roxanne Conlin have e-mailed Edwards delegates to encourage them to remain true to Edwards throughout the convention process.

... We all know that John was the leader on every issue during the campaign, from health care to climate change to poverty to economic inequality to the need to reduce the influence of money and lobbyists to reducing college costs to restoring America's moral authority in the world and on and on.

In that spirit, this weekend we will be standing up for John Edwards, and we hope you will, too. ...

No doubt there will be some Edwards delegates who are successful at the county level and will travel to district and state conventions with their loyalties intact. It would be surprising, however, if all Edwards delegates remain true. And, when the race for national delegates remains so close, even a handful of Iowa's 57 could be a determining factor.