DES MOINES - The Hawkeye State prides itself on being a political filter for the rest of the nation, winnowing the crowded fields of Democratic and Republican presidential hopefuls down to a smaller set who survived Iowa's proving ground to advance to the next step of the campaign.
Instead, Iowa is blowing the race in both parties wide open.
The presumed front-runners are struggling, losing ground to candidates once dismissed as upstarts or has-beens. Voters say they are taking a second look at candidates such as former senator John Edwards of North Carolina, whom political pundits had largely written off as serious contenders for the nomination.
Vast numbers of Iowa caucusgoers are still undecided - half of Democrats and 60 percent of Republicans, according to a recent Des Moines Register poll - and voters say they are resisting pressure to support the most "electable" candidate in both parties.
"I like Hillary Clinton fine," said Dean Prestemon, 73, as he waited to hear Edwards make his pitch. But "last time we got suckered into going with the electable candidate, we're not going to do that again," Prestemon added, referring to Iowa's 2004 support for Democratic nominee John F. Kerry.
Eric Crowdis, a 30-year-old optician, said he initially supported former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney for the GOP nomination, then gravitated toward Representative Tom Tancredo, a Colorado Republican, because Tancredo is tough on illegal immigrants.
Now, Crowdis is leaning towards former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, who has had a stunning rise in polls in Iowa recently. Romney is "a little standoffish," Crowdis said after Romney stopped by his shop in Des Moines. Huckabee, Crowdis said, "is kind of a blue-collar guy. He had to do everything on his own - he earned it, just as most Americans have to do."
The shake-up in the race has boosted the hopes of several candidates in each party - even those not in the top of the poll rankings in Iowa. With Romney and Clinton, a Democratic senator from New York, no longer able to count on Iowa as a springboard to New Hampshire and beyond, their momentum has been disrupted, giving other candidates a chance to compete longer and convince voters they are able to win a general election.
Huckabee's surge in Iowa has given the low-budget campaign hopes of taking off nationally; recent polls show him also leading in South Carolina and in second place in Nevada, both of which hold nominating contests next month. But Huckabee's success also could help GOP candidates John McCain and Rudy Giuliani, who are lagging in Iowa and hoping to gain steam in New Hampshire - an easier task if Romney does not go into his neighboring state of New Hampshire with the momentum of an Iowa win.
On the Democratic side, Iowa's uncertainty has given new life to Edwards, who has been banking on a win here to keep his campaign alive against two very well-funded rivals.
Edwards's campaign events do not attract the massive crowds that turn out to see Clinton and Obama, who are now deadlocked for the lead in opinion polls. But Edwards's supporters are devoted and enthusiastic, pledging to turn out on an evening in January, however cold and snowy, to caucus for their candidate.
Edwards has shown an informality and passion not always evident in his 2004 campaign for the vice presidency, delivering an unabashedly populist message that plays well among liberal Iowa Democrats. He blames big corporations for much of the nation's ills, including poverty, high prescription drug costs, and the failure to achieve universal health coverage.
Four years ago, the former trial lawyer's campaign style sometimes mimicked that of an attorney making a case for the presidency in a courtroom. But this year, the campaign has an Edwards-Unplugged quality, with the former senator pledging to fight the power in Washington and return control of Washington to the people.
"I'm going to give you back your party! I'm going to give you back your White House! And I'm going to give you back your country!" Edwards loudly promises at his campaign events, pumping his fist in the air. So convincing was Edwards's antiestablishment message at an Indianola town meeting, he won over a supporter of Representative Dennis Kucinich of Ohio.
Edwards dismissed suggestions that he was being eclipsed by Clinton and Obama. "I think I've had a shot all along," he said. "It's a very tight race." But supporters say the upheaval in the polls can lead wary caucusgoers to take another look at him.
Susan Mills, a precinct captain for Edwards in Des Moines, acknowledged that "some of the people I know who were strongly for Edwards in 2004 are working for Hillary," and that "young people are going for Obama." But with the Clinton lead fading in recent weeks, Edwards backers are trying to win back voters who might have been lured by the celebrity status of his two major rivals.
"We've been sold a fiction that this is a two-candidate race. Why? No one has voted yet. We're the voters - we decide who the front-runner is," said actor Tim Robbins, campaigning for Edwards in Des Moines.
Many Iowans in both parties agree, saying they are only beginning to make their choices and aren't going to be swayed by campaigns to rally around the most "electable" candidate.
"Iowans are doing what they should be doing. They're asking the tough questions," said Republican Phil Stone, 67, who is undecided but considering Senator John McCain of Arizona. McCain, with his Iowa-unfriendly opposition to federal ethanol subsidies, is lagging in polls here.
"It's all shaken up," said Genny Loraditch, 25, who is wavering between supporting Huckabee and McCain. "There are definitely people you [earlier] would think of as the front-runners, and now they're the furthest ones from your mind."
Democratic voters frequently note the history of the 2004 race, when former Vermont governor Howard Dean appeared nearly unbeatable in Iowa, and Kerry was struggling in the polls. Kerry ended up winning Iowa, giving him added strength to win New Hampshire and, ultimately, the nomination.
David Hubler, a Democrat who plans to caucus for New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, isn't fazed by polls showing the governor in fourth place. "I voted for Kerry four years ago. This is where he was then" in the poll rankings, Hubler noted. "And then he jumped up and won."
