As the clock ticks faster and harder, one person who is watching it eagerly is Representative Swati Dandekar, Assemblywoman from the 36th District and the first woman Indian American to be elected to a state legislature.
Iowa's 1993-odd caucuses will decide on who they want as the Democratic Party's nominee for the presidential elections later this year. While the Iowa caucuses aren't exactly primaries, they nonetheless are a useful guide to the direction of the candidates.
"We are all very nervous here," Dandekar told rediff.com "But it's a good nervousness, its very positive."
Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, who Dandekar is helping with his campaign, is in the lead.
"Today, we are all working the phones to get the vote out, to get people to the caucuses," Dandekar said. "It's extremely busy here and there are so many young men and women who are making calls to everyone they can."
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"More importantly. I think this will be a national phenomenon where the undecided groups will gradually look at the issues and make up their minds," she said. "And whoever gets the caucuses endorsement will definitely get a big push."
In the state, however, she said Iowans want someone who 'understands foreign policy as well as domestic policy'.
"I know that Iowans are looking at the economy and national security first, and then healthcare, those are the issues they are focusing on," Dandekar said. "They want jobs, and they want someone who can take care of national security because every time there is an orange alert, they don't know what they should do about it."
But she is unwilling to comment on the campaigns of the other Democratic candidates. "Ultimately we are all Democrats, and we will get together for what is right and contrary to what others may think, we are very organised about this campaign."
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