| (via TPM's Election Central) The University of Iowa in Iowa City has decided against opening student housing over winter vacation to accomodate students attending the January 3rd caucus. TPM's Eric Kleefield speculates that this is "actually a wild card that could help or hurt any of the candidates, and in fact stands to reward whoever has the strongest organization among students." Kleefield goes on to argue that since the delegate count doesn't change regardless of voter turnout, the campaigns with the best organization will have their votes weighted more. This is probably playing a little fast and loose with the caucus math, since this can be exceptionally complicated and depends on the composition of each precinct. But, the Iowa City Press-Citizen writes: In contrast, Iowa's other public universities, the University of Northern Iowa and Iowa State University, will have space available for students interested in caucusing near campus.
One problem has actually been low student demand. Even at the universities offering housing options (including also Grinnell), campaigns have been working the phones to keep dormitories open, but not a lot of students have registered. The University of Iowa will instead "refer students to the Iowa House Hotel, which is offering a special caucus rate of $49 per night for Jan. 2 and 3 for students coming back to caucus." It turns out that a majority of students actually live off campus anyway. Even more interesting than the article are actually the comments following, in which one reader complains about students expecting free housing even though they don't pay taxes and don't deserve the right to vote locally: These kids vote here and then go home and vote again! The amount they pay in taxes is very very minimal compared to the property owners and full time wage earners! So go try shoving your BS elsewhere!
The truth is they are NOT residents they are just passing through going to school here. And it isn't fair to the property owners to foot the bill for them to ride along and saddle us with their crap!
When Hillary Clinton chooses to reinforce these sentiments and stiru up resentment of students, it has real consequences. Shame on her. |
