ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:
The Iowa caucuses are over. The campaign buses have rolled out of town, and attention is shifting to the rest of the Republican presidential race. You might think Iowans would be reluctant to leave the spotlight. But today, plenty of them are saying good riddance to the candidates and their ubiquitous ads. Iowa Public Radio's Sarah McCammon has this postcard from Des Moines.
SARAH MCCAMMON, BYLINE: You think you've heard a lot about the Iowa caucuses lately? Try living here.
DEB KESSE: I will not miss any of it. I was so tired of hearing all the distortions and the claims that they - there's just no way they can go through with. It just became irritating, which is why we would mute - we'd turn everything off.
LAURIE MERRISS: I'd get tired of the phone calls. I wish they held - were held to the same standards as calls to sell you things. I wish they couldn't call me at home.
MCCAMMON: That was Deb Kesse, from the Des Moines suburb of Urbandale, and then Laurie Merriss, who lives in another suburb, Ankeny. They were eating lunch today at Smokey Row, a coffee shop near downtown Des Moines. Another customer, Tom Wheeler of Clive, was also frustrated by the barrage of ads and calls from candidates fighting for support in this volatile election cycle.
TOM WHEELER: My opinion and - as well as many others is that caucus overload. At my house, I still have a landline, and we just got blasted with phone calls. And so by the end of the period of time, totally turned off by the whole process.
MCCAMMON: So turned off, he says, that he stayed home last night. And Wheeler nearly got rid of that landline.
WHEELER: Mitt Romney hit us the most of anybody. So, you know, that's a sore subject at our house right now, just bringing his name up - at least four or five times a day.
MCCAMMON: I'm at Baby Boomers Cafe in Des Moines' East Village. It's a popular spot for candidates and their entourages, as well as the press, during caucus season. And owner Rodney Maxfield says they've pretty much seen the whole slate this time around.
RODNEY MAXFIELD: Yeah. We're kind of like the political hub here in Iowa. Michele was in here yesterday. Mitt came in a lot. Ron Paul was in here a few times.
MCCAMMON: Maxfield says he won't miss the action, either. While there may be a slight lull in the days ahead, he should get busy again when the Iowa legislature returns next week, and he's looking ahead to the fall.
MAXFIELD: There will be another election, and it's bigger. So that's a good thing.
MCCAMMON: With the general election on the horizon, Maxfield has high hopes for his baked goods.
Since, you know, I am the first cookie of the United States - I mean, Barack will be in here all the time. So I'll have all that activity going on.
As the president and his eventual Republican challenger campaign for votes in this swing state ahead of the November election, they may buy a few of Maxfield's cookies - and, no doubt, a lot more political ads.
For NPR News, I'm Sarah McCammon in Des Moines.