"A Nice Way to Play Politics"

At least that's the case in Jim Kalal's caucus

There are 2,531 precincts in Iowa, each resembling but also differing from every other one. For a closeup view of how the caucus system works, TIME Chicago Correspondent Madeleine Nash attended a Republican gathering in the second ward of Harlan. Her report:

Dressed in a gold and white West Point football jersey, Jim Kalal spent much of the weekend before the caucus crouched over a yellow Princess phone, his voter lists spread but on the dining room table. As a supporter of Ronald Reagan, he was trying to round up a few more votes. As temporary chairman of the meeting, Kalal also used these final hours to figure out how to take charge of the caucus itself. Rather than depend on just a blackboard, for instance, he decided to set up his own slide projector to display the returns on a screen. He also jokingly mentioned his scheme to send one of George Bush's most articulate supporters out to phone in the straw-poll results. "While he's gone," chuckled Kalal, thinking how he might then snatch up all the delegates for Reagan, "I'm going to move very rapidly."

Harlan (pop. 5,400) sits amid the farm land of southwest Iowa, 98 miles west of Des Moines. With its electorate divided nearly equally among Democrats, Republicans and Independents, Harlan has some fierce political battles. As Kenneth "Doc" Mueller, the town chiropractor who doubles as mayor, said about the Republican caucus, "We've got a real hot contest here. It's friend against friend."

Few friends in Harlan take politics as seriously as Jim Kalal does. A native of Nebraska, Kalal, 44, studied engineering, then worked 17 years for the Lincoln electricity company before moving to Harlan in 1973 to manage the town's municipal utility. A plump, amiable man with curly gray hair, Kalal is married and has four children. In 1976 he supported President Ford against Reagan because he believed a White House incumbent stood a better chance. This time he decided to go with the former Governor of California. Says Kalal: "I liked what Reagan said four years ago, and I like it better now."

On the evening of the caucus, Kalal goes early to the small meeting room in the basement of the town hall. As chairman in 1976, he played host to fewer than 20 people in his living room. Tonight, with a seven-man race and all the press attention, Kalal is expecting a bigger turnout. He sets out 60 chairs, then places a Reagan flyer on every seat. "If people show up," Kalal observes, "someone will just have to stand."

Shortly after 7 p.m., the caucus-goers begin arriving, half an hour early. Every seat is soon taken and still people are streaming in. Kalal announces that the caucus is moving to larger quarters in the basement of the Methodist Church a block away. Once there, Kalal starts looking for an outlet for his projector in back of the dark oak podium. But nowhere is there a three-prong outlet. Kalal, slightly ruffled, dispatches someone to find a blackboard. "I'll have to play this by ear," he says, opening the meeting. "I'm Jim Kalal, your temporary chairman, and this is your neighborhood caucus meeting. I guess we're a large neighborhood."

Each Republican caucus makes its own rules. Kalal is unanimously approved as chairman, and he asks if anyone wants to say a word on behalf of a candidate. Grant Finley, the tall, soft-spoken president of the Western Engineering construction company, extols George Bush as "the best qualified." Others praise Reagan and Philip Crane, but no one speaks up for the other candidates. At 8:07 Kalal distributes plain white paper for the straw vote. "I think I brought enough paper," he frets aloud, "but you'll have to use your own pens--or borrow one from a neighbor." As the ballots are being collected, Leo Hough, a florist, raises a question. "I'm here for the first time, and I wonder how many other people are." Kalal addresses the crowd: "Raise your hands if you've ever been to a caucus before." In a sea of 131 faces, only 20 hands go up. The room breaks into laughter.

While the votes are being tabulated, Kalal looks worried. He had hoped that the Reagan forces would dominate the meeting, but the results of the straw poll, now chalked up on the board, are not encouraging: Anderson--2, Baker--12, Bush--48, Connally--6, Crane--9, Reagan--53. "It looks like this group is pretty well split among four candidates," says Kalal. "In the past, we've had winner take all, but I don't think that would be fair this time. I think this time delegates should be picked on a percentage basis. All in favor say aye." A chorus of ayes fills the room.

Kalal then takes out his pocket calculator. "Baker has 9.1% of the vote, so we'll take 9.1% of 13. That would be 1.18 delegates." Someone suggests that the numbers be rounded off and Kalal, unsure of his fractions, quickly agrees. After several minutes, he has the formula. "Connally gets one delegate, Baker one, Bush five, Crane one and Reagan five."

The chairman then asks each candidate's supporters for nominations; every group except Reagan's proposes the same number of names as delegate spots allotted. The Reaganites, though, nominate eight candidates for five slots. More paper ballots are passed out.

It is now 9 p.m. and the caucus has been running on for over an hour. Kalal begins polling on national issues. Many questions are handled by a simple voice vote. "A national balanced budget?" asks Kalal. "Is there anyone against?" Not a squeak is heard. Halfway through the session, Kalal interrupts the voting to announce the five Reagan delegates; he is one of the five.

When the caucus finally ends around 10 p.m., Kalal heads over to Doc Mueller's house. He discovers that Doc, an ardent Reaganite, followed the winner-take-all strategy in his ward's caucus and thus won all the delegates for Reagan, even though Reagan received only 51 of 100 ballots cast (Bush received 27). But Kalal should be pleased: in Doc's ward, supporters of the other candidates stormed out, while no one went home mad in Ward 2. As Bush Supporter Spence Vanderlinden, one of 13 delegates elected by Kalal's caucus, put it: "This is a nice way to play politics.''

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