2020 Presidential Campaign - It’s on

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Thanks, Magna.

I wanted to place myself in a less idealized, more "real" light.

Another issue is that apparently they were expecting a huge turnout at the Iowa democratic caucus; they were expecting the base to be energized and mobilized. The turnout was far less than expected which seems to be the opposite of what many had assumed.

I loathe multitasking.

The smartphone application blamed in part for the ongoing delay in reporting results of the Monday Iowa caucuses is linked with key Iowa and national Democrats associated with Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.

The revelation came as the Nevada Democratic Party announced Tuesday it would not be using the same app in its Feb. 22 caucuses, despite earlier reports to the contrary.

The app was issued by Jimmy Hickey of Shadow Inc., metadata of the program that the Des Moines Register analyzed Tuesday shows. Gerard Niemira and Krista Davis, who worked for Clinton’s 2016 campaign, co-founded Shadow.

Company officials did not respond Tuesday to a request for comment. But a short time after the Des Moines Register published a story revealing the link, the company tweeted an apology.

"We sincerely regret the delay in the reporting of the results of last night's Iowa caucuses and the uncertainty it has caused to the candidates, their campaigns, and Democratic caucus-goers," Shadow's message said.

Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Troy Price worked as Clinton’s 2016 Iowa political director. He did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday about the relationship between the party and Shadow, which it paid $63,184 for website development and travel expenses, according to reports filed with the Iowa Ethics & Campaign Disclosure Board.

The Nevada party paid Shadow $50,143 for “monetary expenses,” filings with the Nevada secretary of state show. The filings provided no further details.

It was unclear whether the Iowa Democratic Party had chosen the app on its own, or had received guidance from the national party. Shadow's website indicates close ties to the National Democratic Party

When a light is shining, Shadows are a constant companion,” it says. “We see ourselves as building a long-term, side-by-side ‘Shadow’ of tech infrastructure to the Democratic Party and the progressive community at large.”

Security watchdogs had called on Iowa Democrats to be more transparent about the development and testing of the app prior to Monday’s caucuses. But Democrats declined to name the developer or provide testing details, saying top cybersecurity experts advised against releasing too much information because it could result in the vendor being targeted.

Nevada Democratic party chair William McCurdy II said in a statement Tuesday morning that Nevada will not be employing the same app or vendor.

The party had previously announced plans to use an app to tabulate results at caucuses, as Iowa did, along with a second app that would be pre-loaded onto tablets available for voters to use at caucus sites during four days of early voting.

McCurdy said Nevada Democrats had already developed “a series of backups and redundant reporting systems and are currently evaluating the best path forward.”

The party did not respond to a follow-up message asking if the party had already planned to use a different app and vendor or if that was a change made in the wake of Iowa’s delayed results and technical problems.

The Iowa app was not vetted or evaluated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Christopher Krebs, the department’s cybersecurity agency director, told the New York Times on Monday night.

Kiersten Todt, managing director of the Cyber Readiness Institute, an organization started by the CEOs of businesses like Microsoft to reduce hacking risks, had expressed cautions about the app prior to Monday’s caucus. On Tuesday, she called for political parties and the federal government to do a better job of working together on elections, which she said could have helped Iowa avoid the reporting problems

Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Troy Price apologized for the Monday night debacle that led to a 20-hour delay in reporting results from the Iowa caucuses and said his party released results from 62 percent of precincts on Tuesday.

In the partial results:

Pete Buttigieg: 26.9 percent of the state delegates

Bernie Sanders: 25.1 percent

Elizabeth Warren: 18.3 percent

Joe Biden: 15.6 percent

Amy Klobuchar: 12.6 percent

Andrew Yang: 1.1 percent

Tom Steyer: 0.3 percent.

The reporting of the results and circumstances surrounding the 2020 Iowa Democratic Party caucuses were unacceptable,” Mr. Price said during a news conference in Des Moines. “As chair of the party I apologize deeply for this.”

Mr. Price pledged a “thorough, transparent and independent” investigation into what caused the delays and stressed that party officials have a “paper trail” that will allow officials to double-check their results.

“My paramount concern is making sure that these results are accurate and reflect what happened last night in caucuses throughout the state,” he said.

With 62 percent of votes counted, Sanders held a lead in overall votes while Buttigieg led among a measure of state delegates.
Sanders secured 26 percent of the popular vote; Buttigieg followed with 25 percent. Warren placed third at 20 percent and Biden has 13 percent.

So we’ve arrived at a point of some ambivalence. On the one hand, candidates such as Buttigieg, who seemingly did well there, are liable to be injured by the muddled storylines in Iowa following the results-reporting disaster on Monday night. On the other hand, it’s not clear why Iowa was afforded so much importance in the first place, and Buttigieg possibly owed his entire presence in the campaign to this quirk in the nomination process. Nonetheless, these were the rules of the game, as every candidate understood them. So if Iowa turns out not to matter very much because of the results-reporting snafu, they have every right to be upset.

To be even more blunt: The Iowa Democratic Party’s colossal screw-up in reporting results will potentially have direct effects on the outcome of the nomination process. The failure to report results will almost certainly help Biden, assuming that indications that he performed poorly in Iowa are correct, as they won’t get nearly as much media coverage. And they’ll hurt whichever candidate wins the state — most likely Sanders or Buttigieg. (Although if Sanders winds up finishing in second place or lower, he also might not mind a reduction in the importance of Iowa, especially with one of his best states, New Hampshire, coming up next.)

Furthermore, Iowa is typically a state that winnows the field. But with every candidate either having performed well there, potentially having an excuse for a disappointing finish there, or somewhere in between, it might not do that. Delaying the winnowing process would tangibly increase the chance of a contested convention.

It’s not a good situation for the Democratic Party. And it’s already too late for the damage to be entirely undone, even if Iowa eventually gets its act together.

Would have been a lot better for Buttigieg if the results weren't completely debacled. For the 5 major candidates:

1) Buttigieg- Great result obviously, but the confusion hurts him the most. Should get a healthy bounce from winning in Iowa.

2) Sanders- Probably good result although there was high expectation he would actually win it, so we'll describe it as mixed positive.

3) Warren- Not good, not bad. Warren does kinda just as expected. Her campaign needs a lot more than that to actually win.

4) Biden - bad result, but with 15% statewide he's getting a significant cut of the delegates and probably loves the confusion of the results. It's all about surviving to South Carolina for him.

5) Klobuchar- Does Klob count as major? She'll get a delegate from the 4th district, but for her campaign to go anywhere needed the kind of night that Buttigieg had. Good night if she's angling for VP. Bad if she still has illusions of actually winning.

Other Notables:

Contested Convention- The confusion of the Iowa results and the fact that 5 candidates will pick up delegates likely makes a contested convention more likely.

Trump- The confusion results and Buttigieg win muddying the waters is great for the incumbent president.