WAUKEE, Iowa - Charlotte Swallow, a retired teacher, has never been to a presidential caucus in all her 83 years. She is a Democrat, but not very politically active, and she feels no special loyalty to any of the candidates.
Yet the ruckus around this year's caucuses has grown so deafening - various campaigns left nine messages on her answering machine while she was out on New Year's Day - she finally relented.
"I decided the other night I'm going to go," she said as she tucked into breakfast with a few other regulars at Christine's Hometown Cafe, a small, dimly lighted coffee shop in the center of the city. "I just decided I wanted to go and hear for myself what's going on."
Waukee, a sleepy farming community on the outskirts of Des Moines for most of Swallow's life, is now the fastest-growing city in the fastest-growing county in Iowa - the population increased by nearly 60 percent, to about 8,100 people, between 2000 and 2004, and now probably tops 10,000, city officials say. It is just the kind of exurb similar to so many others across the country, including in the upcoming primary states of New Hampshire and South Carolina, where candidates from both parties need to do well to prevail. Historically Republican, Waukee is now bustling with independents, including thousands of young professionals from Iowa and across the country, attracted by good schools, jobs in the insurance industry, and the proximity to Des Moines.
The white-hot presidential contest in both parties this year has contributed to one of the most riveting races anyone in this city can remember. Just about every major candidate has dropped in; the campaigns are furiously organizing in Waukee, and residents are preparing for a record turnout at tonight's caucuses.
"I have attended a lot of these events for both Republicans and Democrats, and they have had huge turnouts," said Bill Peard, the mayor of Waukee. "I'm 47, and I don't remember a presidential election year that has been so exciting."
Fran and Joe Millard spent part of yesterday walking through Westview Church, set back from a pair of highways, where they will preside over one of the city's four Democratic precinct caucuses for the first time. Joe Millard jotted down notes as the church secretary explained how to unlock the doors and which light switches turned on which lights.
"Not knowing how many we're going to have, that's the big question," said Joe Millard.
Turnout has never been strong in the Iowa caucuses, complex events that require participants to come out on a cold night in January and devote at least a couple of hours. Still, thanks to the buzz over the apparently dead-even Democratic race, the Millards expect more than triple the 30 or so who showed up in 2004. Statewide in 2004, more than 120,000 Democrats took part in caucuses.
"There are just so many new people, and this is such an exciting race," Fran Millard said.
A number of folks in the city remain undecided - a Des Moines Register poll published Tuesday indicated that 34 percent of Democrats could still be persuaded to change their minds, and 46 percent of Republicans could. One was Vivian Wilson, 80, one of Swallow's oldest friends, who ate with her at Hometown Cafe yesterday. Wilson said she started out liking Rudy Giuliani because of his record in New York and the way he handled 9/11. Then she became interested in Mitt Romney. But, she said: "I've changed my mind again . . . he's a little bit too smooth."
Desperately trying to capture undecided caucusgoers like Swallow and Wilson, scores of activists in Waukee have been working the phones and the streets, trying to get their supporters to the caucuses and to sway last-minute undecideds.
Don Bailey Jr., a city councilor and former mayor, recorded an automated telephone call for Democrat Barack Obama that ran over the weekend. He spent most of New Year's Day door-knocking in frigid temperatures. Today, his wife will bake oatmeal-chocolate chip cookies, and together they'll put Obama stickers on water bottles to hand out tonight in hopes of drawing caucusgoers to their camp.
"People are tired of the attacks; there's all kinds of problems with the country, and if we're going to solve problems, it's going to take everybody in the country pulling together," he said.
Troy Mapes, 41, a police officer from Waukee who is a Romney precinct captain, planned to make a few final calls last night.
"One thing I really like about him, you can just tell he's a natural leader," he said. "He's been in the public sector and the private sector, he's been successful in both arenas and hasn't just been in public office his whole life."
Isaiah McGee, a 28-year-old John McCain supporter who teaches high school history and economics and also owns a small consulting business, spent yesterday phoning his neighbors to persuade them to support McCain - or at least get them to the Precinct 4 caucus, which he is running.
McGee, who grew up in Los Angeles, attended college in eastern Iowa and settled with his wife in Waukee in 2003. Now a city councilor, he offers his neighbors his own reasons for supporting McCain: the candidate's commitment to cutting spending, his foreign policy and military experience, and his firm but quiet opposition to abortion.
He said he hoped his calls would help turn out other young couples he has seen around the neighborhood, a large development of townhouses and two-story, beige- and gray-colored homes spread over the flat landscape.
"That's part of why I'm excited - some people I know, some people I don't know, but I'll meet them tomorrow night," he said.
Meanwhile, in a strip mall off one of the major highways running through the city, Hillary Clinton's campaign office was abuzz with volunteers flying in and out, including a few of Chelsea Clinton's friends. Marcia Wanamaker, 56, a precinct captain for Clinton from Waukee, picked up door hangers to distribute during the last-minute push with Valerie Newman, a 56-year-old volunteer who had just arrived from Seattle.
Wanamaker, a real estate agent, took the day off work to help out. A former Republican, she said she was so disgusted with President Bush's handling of the war, the economy, and a host of other issues that she not only decided to vote for Clinton, but to campaign for her. "She is just the right person for the job; she has the credibility to turn our country around," she said.
In 7-degree temperatures, she and Newman knocked on their first door at a condo complex.
"I wouldn't vote for her if she was the last woman in Iowa!" an elderly lady hollered from behind a glass door.
Wanamaker and Newman looked at each other and burst into laughter. They soldiered on.
A few minutes later, in another massive cookie-cutter development, they had better luck: Sharon Brindle, 58, an elementary school principal who answered the door with a cheery smile, said she definitely planned to caucus for Clinton.
"Terrific!" Wanamaker said, thanking her, as she and Newman headed back to the car. "I'm pretty confident we're going to reach these folks."
