STEVE INSKEEP, host:
The people who attended last night's Iowa caucuses include two we're going to talk with next. They both attended caucuses at Roosevelt High School in Des Moines, Iowa. They were both part of a group of voters who spoke with us on MORNING EDITION last month. And we're going to turn to them once again to get a sense of what it was like in the rooms there at Roosevelt.
Gretchen Kauffman is a Republican. J.P. Steffan is a Democrat.
Welcome to you both.
Mr. J.P. STEFFAN (Democrat): Thank you.
Ms. GRETCHEN KAUFFMAN (Republican): Thank you.
INSKEEP: And let's start with you, Gretchen Kauffman, how did the caucus go?
Ms. KAUFFMAN: Well, it was very crowded in our room. In fact, we had 87 Republicans and I think that the Polk County Republican Party expected about 30 to attend our caucus.
INSKEEP: How did the discussion go with those 87 folks?
Ms. KAUFFMAN: Well, the Republican caucus isn't contentious like I - we could hear some of the Democratic ones. There were three Democratic ones at Roosevelt and there was a lot of yelling and some laughter. We started in my room with each candidate having people supporting - give a little talk, if you wanted to. I did. And…
INSKEEP: You spoke for your candidate who was…
Ms. KAUFFMAN: I did. I supported Giuliani.
INSKEEP: Okay. And then what happened?
Ms. KAUFFMAN: And then we had a vote.
INSKEEP: And…
Ms. KAUFFMAN: It's on a ballot.
INSKEEP: And how did it go among the 87 in your particular…
Ms. KAUFFMAN: In our precinct, Huckabee won. Thompson was second. Ron Paul was third. Romney was fourth. McCain was fifth. And Giuliani was sixth.
INSKEEP: Oh, were you the only Giuliani supporter there that night?
Ms. KAUFFMAN: No, I wasn't.
(Soundbite of laughter)
INSKEEP: Okay. Just checking.
Ms. KAUFFMAN: As a matter of fact, I was not.
INSKEEP: So it was a secret ballot.
Ms. KAUFFMAN: It is.
INSKEEP: And Huckabee carried the room.
Ms. KAUFFMAN: He did.
INSKEEP: So this was a quick procedure, and then you were able to listen to the rumblings from the Democrats who were meeting in the same high school -elsewhere in the same high school and…
Ms. KAUFFMAN: Yup. I stayed because we had a platform discussion after that.
INSKEEP: Well, let's find out if what you heard with your ear to the wall matches up with what J.P. Steffan experienced. What happened in your caucus, Mr. Steffan?
Mr. STEFFAN: Well, we - in this part of Des Moines, we're fairly strong Democratic precincts and we had 375 people in our caucus. We met in the cafeteria. And yeah, it was very spirited and very active. I wouldn't say that it was contentious at all. In fact, I would say that at this particular caucus, even though the groups are very large and very competitive that the people that were there were very amiable and I think everybody pretty much walked away pretty happy with how everything came off.
INSKEEP: Now, as I understand on the Democratic side, you separate everybody out. You find out how many supporters there are for each candidate. Then you start knocking off candidates, so to speak.
Mr. STEFFAN: When we divided into our groups by candidate, you had to have at least 57 people in the group in order to be viable.
INSKEEP: You were supporting one of the lesser-known candidates or one of the…
Mr. STEFFAN: Well, actually - yeah. I went in there, I felt a real affinity for Joe Biden. But I also supported John Edwards four years ago and so it was real easy for me to go in, saying that I would join the Biden group initially and then move to Edwards if we failed to get viability. And when the final count was tallied up, we elected three delegates for Obama, two for John Edwards and one delegate for Senator Clinton.
INSKEEP: Well goodness, that means that your room there reflected in some rough degree the order of the finish across the state on the Democratic side.
Mr. STEFFAN: You know, in this - I've seen that the last three caucuses is that - as our precinct goes, so has pretty much the rest of the state.
INSKEEP: Was there any horse-trading or - I hesitate to say bribing but did anybody make offers, you know, or hand out cookies, free beer, anything else to get people to switch votes?
Mr. STEFFAN: Well, about the only offer that ever really gets made is, you know, if you guys come over and join our group it will add to our delegate count, but you get to decide who gets to be the delegate of the county convention.
INSKEEP: Oh, so you have an opportunity perhaps to be that delegate yourself.
Mr. STEFFAN: Right. But I really, in the end, think that most of the folks that were in the non-viable groups had thought about this already, and they thought they had other good choices. And we're really blessed with having a lot of good choices on the Democratic side, and I think that our caucus is really indicative of that. You know, this was exciting. It was really the funnest caucus that I have ever been to.
INSKEEP: J.P. Steffan in Des Moines, Iowa. Thanks very much.
Mr. STEFFAN: Thank you.
INSKEEP: Gretchen Kauffman, thank you for speaking with us.
Ms. KAUFFMAN: Thank you, Steve.
INSKEEP: They attended last night's Republican and Democratic caucuses at Roosevelt High School in Des Moines, Iowa. And we first spoke with them after the Democratic radio debate last month.