The Illinois Caucus

Dec. 1, 2007 — -- Barack Obama's campaign is telling Iowa college students they can caucus for him even if they aren't from Iowa.

His campaign offers that advice in a brochure being distributed on college campuses in the state. A spokesman said it's legal and that 50,000 of the fliers are being distributed.

The brochure says: "If you are not from Iowa, you can come back for the Iowa caucus and caucus in your college neighborhood."

Given that lots of students in Iowa's colleges and universities are from Obama's neighboring home state of Illinois, the effort could net him thousands of additional votes on caucus night.

It's not the first time Obama has profited from the fact he's from an adjacent state. Illinois residents routinely show up at the candidate's events in eastern Iowa. (The first question Obama took at an Iowa town meeting was from a guy from Naperville.)

Also, campaign volunteers come from Illinois to campaign for him. And opposing campaigns accused Obama's campaign of busing people into Iowa from Illinois to attend the recent Jefferson Jackson Dinner, a charge Obama's campaign has denied.

The flyer urges Iowa college students to caucus in their hometowns on Jan. 3, when many of them will be on holiday break.

While it's legal for college students to register to vote in Iowa to do that, this raises the question of whether it's fair, or politically smart. No presidential campaign in memory has ever made such a large, open attempt to encourage students from out of state, many of whom pay out-of-state tuition, to participate in the caucuses. No other campaign appears to be doing it in this campaign cycle.

Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for Obama's campaign, said "we have no intention of doing something here that is in any way illegal or that will raise questions about the credibility of the caucuses." He said election laws allow students to register and vote where they go to college and that means they can caucus in those precincts as well.

That's fine but these are the Iowa caucuses. Asking people who are "not from Iowa" to participate in them changes the nature of the event.

And trying to pack the caucuses with people from Illinois might taint Obama's showing. Polls show Obama is in a close race with Hillary Clinton and John Edwards. Recent surveys show him with a lead of a few points. If he wins the Iowa caucuses with Illinois votes, his victory would be discounted by his opponents and media people.

The issue of out-of-state residents caucusing in Iowa came up recently when one of the candidates, Chris Dodd, urged his rivals to promise not to encourage their staffers working in Iowa to register as voters so they could participate in the caucuses here. Most of them agreed, including Obama's campaign. (And, frankly, a few hundred staffers wouldn't have much of an impact on the outcome anyway. Besides, most of those staffers will be working on caucus night and wouldn't have time to participate.)

But turning out-of-state college students into Iowa voters is a different, larger, matter. Thousands of votes are involved and it risks offending long-time Iowa residents.

But, then, they do politics a little differently in Illinois than they do in Iowa.