In Urbandale, the Caucuses are Underway

In Urbandale, the caucuses got underway at the Family Life Center of Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, where a cross, a Christmas tree and an American flag were on a stage as more than 100 people filed in.

It was the first caucus for Max Smith, a 19-year-old sophomore at Iowa State University.

Smith and his friends were going to caucus together, “for the intrigue of something new” until they learned they were in different precincts. So, he sat alone.

He favors Ron Paul.

“Personally, I doubt that he could possibly win, but a lot of the other candidates just seem evil to me,” Smith said.

Urbandale was scheduled to host 11 caucus of Polk County’s 183 sites.

Gloria Dei Lutheran's precinct 8 caucus site was crowded with well over 100 people crowding in and several camera crews from C-Span. Retired Farm Bureau chairman Dean Kleckner, famously for Herman Cain earlier in the campaign, spoke on behalf of Newt Gingrich.

City Councilman Mike Carver, who led the caucus, spoke on behalf of Mitt Romey and Karen Santorum spoke for her husband, Rick. All three had problems getting on stage, tripping on the last step. Joked Kleckner: "I've had two knee replacements and hip replacement, and I'm glad I don't have to have another because of that."

Meetings began at 7 p.m. For some areas, results will be known in a matter of 30 minutes or so. Larger caucuses could take a couple of hours. That depends on how many candidate representatives speak, how long they drag on and how many votes need to be counted.

The GOP record for caucus-goers is 118,411, set in 2008, when Mike Huckabee won, followed by Mitt Romney, Fred D. Thompson, John McCain, Ron Paul and Rudy Giuliani.

Patch will provide live coverage of the results as they come in.