MUSCATINE, Iowa — Betty McMahon guesses she’s been a precinct captain at Democratic caucuses every four years since 1972, but still gets nervous when people start to file in.

McMahon, 75, arrived at the Sweetland Township precinct more than half an hour before the doors opened at 6 p.m. Thursday at Bob Roach Little Theatre at Muscatine Community College.

Dressed in a bright blue “Hillary Clinton for President” T-shirt, which also had the words “precinct captain” on the front, McMahon set to work laying out sign-in sheets for registered voters on three 8-foot long tables and directing the set-up for Clinton’s table nearby.

Helpers, including her daughter Rhonda Wittmer, 53, hung photos of the former first lady and senator from New York on a post behind a round table with bags of Lays potato chips, bottled water, cookies and platters of ham and turkey                sandwiches.

“I like this one better, talking to the little old lady that’s eating,” McMahon said of a sign posted below another that said “Iowans for Hillary” and above a photo of Clinton embracing a woman wearing a green T-shirt for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

By 5:45 p.m., McMahon was scrambling to finish setting up the registration tables as the first caucus-goers began to trickle in. She hurriedly scrawled letters on pieces of paper to designate the

McMAHON JUMP

alphabetical listings of registered voters’ last names.

She handed off a roll of Hillary stickers to Carol Wade, saying, “All the Hillary people get stickers, that’s how we know who gets sandwiches.”

The registration line is 15 people deep when the doors officially opened at 6 p.m.

“Press real hard because it has to go through three copies,” McMahon instructed.

McMahon’s granddaughter, Jaime Wittmer, 27, helped unregistered voters sign in at the far end of the table.

McMahon shuffled back and forth — between her granddaughter and an assistant, Robert Kleindolph, at the other end of the tables — shaking hands with acquaintances and pointing to where registered voters were to sign their name and fill in ovals to show attendance and which candidate they support.

“Glad to have you, honey,” she greets one woman.

“There’s Rob,” she said to a younger man, taking him to his registration form.

Twenty minutes before the doors were to close at 7 p.m., McMahon abandoned the dwindling registration table and tended to a smaller one at the front of the room.

“Those don’t stand out very good,” she said of signs regarding the Democratic party, caucus agenda and caucus math.

She and two others removed the signs from where they were taped on the front of the table and posted them on a red divider curtain.

McMahon found a few seconds to take a few swigs from a bottle of water and grab a bag of potato chips and ham sandwich, but not enough time to eat either.

Then it was back to the front of the room to lay out nomination papers for local and state Democrats seeking office in November.

“We got 10 minutes and then we’re going to close the doors,” she announced, asking caucus-goers to show their support.

McMahon introduces herself as the temporary chair and asked for nominations for a permanent chair, hearing back only one for herself.

“Ah, are there any other nominations?” she asked twice.

With one loud “aye,” the crowd voted on McMahon.

“Oh my,” she responded, evoking laughter.

With only three minutes until 7 p.m., McMahon said, “It’s just like waiting for the new year, isn’t it?”

A few people in the back of room complained that they couldn’t hear her, and a couple of supporters of John Edwards crossed the room to hook up a microphone.

They got the microphone working at exactly 7 p.m., just in time for McMahon to begin the caucus by reading a non-discrimination statement before directing the 144 caucus-goers to form candidate preference groups.

“Go wherever your signs are. … So, Richardson, Dodd, Obama, Biden, Edwards and Hillary,” she said, reading off the signs taped on walls or posted on tables around the outside of the room.

The group dispersed and settled in loosely defined groups a few minutes later. There was some brief confusion when it appeared there were more people in the groups than who registered, but it was determined some were campaign staffers who could not caucus.

Clinton’s group had the most people with 58. Barack Obama, a senator from Illinois, and Edwards, a former senator from North Carolina, had 27 and 33 voters, respectively, earning more than the 15 percent of precinct caucus-goers needed to be considered viable.

Chris Dodd with 15 supporters, Joe Biden at five, and Bill Richardson with four supporters were not viable, and candidates Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel were not represented. One person was undecided.

“You want to get these groups that are not viable to go with you,” McMahon said to members of the viable groups, giving them half an hour to realign.

Most supporters of viable candidates joined the Obama or Edwards groups, but five Dodd supporters chose to sit out despite the best efforts of members from each viable candidate group, including McMahon.

Finally, at about 7:40 p.m., McMahon announced the final results: Clinton would receive four delegates at the county convention March 15; Edwards, three; and Obama, 2.

McMahon persuaded caucus-goers to hang around a little bit longer to nominate committee members and approve resolutions, which the crowd approved forwarding to the Platform Committee on Thursday, Jan. 10, without reading.

After adjourning at 8 p.m., McMahon made her way back to the registration table and finally takes a few bites of her ham sandwich.

“It was a good night, a good evening,” she said.

Reporter contact information

Jennifer Meyer: 563-262-0525

jennifer.meyer@muscatinejournal.com