Des Moines Register Cancels Release Of Gold-Standard Iowa Poll, Angering Bernie Supporters

Authored by Eoin Higgins via CommonDreams.org,

Over 3,000 supporters Sen. Bernie Sanders came out to rally for the White House hopeful in Cedar Rapids, Iowa Saturday night, a showing that the Vermont senator’s backers said is all the polling needed to show the momentum that’s made Sanders a frontrunner in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary.

“Our campaign has officially held the three largest rallies in Iowa,” Bernie 2020 Iowa state director Misty Rebik said in a statement. “We’ve knocked over half a million doors in the last month. That is what we mean by ‘Not Me, Us.'”

Sanders was expected Saturday night to place first in the influential and “gold standard” Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom Iowa Poll, but the poll was shelved after the campaign of former South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg claimed a supporter had encountered an irregularity with the pollsters.

“Release the poll or don’t, I think we’ve got a pretty good idea already of who’s ahead,” tweeted Iowa Starting Line editor Pat Rynard.

The only poll that mattered before the only poll that matters has been canceled.

The Des Moines Register and CNN decided late Saturday not to release their highly anticipated poll of Monday’s Iowa caucuses after a potential error was brought to their attention by the campaign of Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana. — NBC

Turnout at the Cedar Rapids event stunned observers. 

This is why they trashed the final Iowa poll. @BernieSanders has a dominant lead and the establishment shit itself. pic.twitter.com/YIsDypiaHW

— Ben Hauck 🔥🌹 (@fightdenial) February 2, 2020

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NBC News reporter Alex Seitz-Wald, on the ground in Iowa, said Sanders had drawn the largest crowd of the four front-runners Saturday.

“Crowds ain’t everything,” tweeted Seitz-Wald, “but they ain’t nothin either.”

Pete demanded to speak with the manager, and got the Iowa poll pulled. Perfect. https://t.co/KFq1aWFUEC

— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) February 2, 2020

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The poll, which is conducted by expert J. Ann Selzer, is widely respected as one of the top political polls in the country and paints a good picture of where Iowans are two days before the state goes to vote. 

Turnout on Monday is expected to exceed 2016, when around 171,000 people came out to choose a winner in the open Democratic primary. Des Moines area Democratic strategist Jeff Link told HuffPost he expected “close to 2008” levels of turnout on Monday, close to 240,000. 

This is the third campaign event I have been to today. Biden and Buttigieg each had a couple hundred. Sanders campaign says there are 3,000 people here in Cedar Rapids. pic.twitter.com/UAsOdORYH1

— Scott Detrow (@scottdetrow) February 2, 2020

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As Common Dreams reported, Sanders is headed down the home stretch with a strong team on the ground and is using his “Not me, us” slogan as a rallying cry for voters. 

The senator called for a collective movement of compassion in a tweet Saturday.

“Our job is to give people hope,” said Sanders. “If we stand together, there is nothing that we cannot accomplish.”