American Democracy Conference

Make sure you check out the Hotline/UVA's American Democracy Conference panel on the 2008 Republican race, with Rich Galen (representing Newt), Dave Kensinger (representing Sam Brownback), Mark McKinnon (representing John McCain), Jan van Lohuizen (representing Gov. Mitt Romney) and Alex Vogel (an adviser to Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN).

Paricularly interesting are the answers to the how important is Iowa question:

Does the winner of Iowa win everything?

McKinnon: "I don't think so. I think there is an unusual constellation of candidates and primaries this particular year. You could have someone pop in Iowa, someone else pop in New Hampshire and someone else pop in South Carolina." He said he thinks candidates could pick their state and still stay in the game.

Van Lohuizen: "There was 18 days between NH and SC and in the first ten we (Bush) were behind. There was recovery time. [This cycle,] there is no recovery time. So I really think it does matter and it does elevate the priority of Iowa."

Kensinger: "Brownback.. if he runs, he runs to win in Iowa. He;s the only candidate who's a member of the FFA. If we ran in Iowa, we run to win."

Vogel: "You have Sen. McCain in this race who won some of these places last time. Gov. Romney has ... this burden of expectations as well."