The Iowa caucuses are behind us and the real winner from the event is clearly President Obama. It’s the first contest of this election year and with the New Hampshire Primary close behind, it’s far too early for certain Republican challengers to throw in the towel.
Iowa and New Hampshire are both small states. Iowa has just under 2 million registered voters. Democrats lead Republicans by about 29,000 registered voters; voters without party registration outnumber Democrats and Republicans with a total of 720,000 voters, so the candidate that gets the independent voters is likely to be the one to win in November. Conversely, Orange County has about 1.64 million registered voters with Democrats at 517,620 and Republicans at 694,711 and no party affilitation coming in at 354,499 (Libertarians are only 11,769).
Iowa is currently in the blue column. It’s economy is reletively stable, the value of real estate there is increasing, and they are one of the few states where gay marriage is the law of the land. With such a large argicultural base, Iowa residents benefit from policies pased by Democrats. The state has conservatives, but leans to the left.
While Iowa has just under 2 million voters, the state is home to nearly 19 million hogs. On to New Hampshire.