On the Campaign Trail with Ed Tibbetts

(2:10 p.m.) All the chatter about a revote in Michigan and Florida in the Democratic presidential race has U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin worried it could hurt Iowa’s caucuses.

Harkin told me last week he opposed a revote. Today, on his conference call with reporters, I asked him if he thought it would spell the end of the caucuses. Here’s what he said:

“It could. It could spell the end. I don’t know what it would lead to. It would lead to chaos and confusion as we head into the convention. I’m sure the big states will come in there and try to throw their weight around and try to push everything up front and they’ll just squeeze Iowa out and New Hampshire and the other small states. That’s the danger I see in letting Florida and Michigan go ahead and break the rules. …I’m afraid we’re going to get into a situation where the big states are going to say the heck with the small states, we’ll just squeeze them out. And we won’t have the ability for someone to come from a small state without a lot of money to make a name and get support and run for president. I dare say that if in fact a big state had gone first- New York would have been Clinton obviously or Illinois- that would be Obama- then we might not have had the kind spirited contest we have today. And I think spirited contest is good, not bad.”

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