At the Democratic County Convention in Iowa City on Saturday, John Edwards supporters kept him in the running and kept alive their bargaining power at the district and state conventions.Two-person race for the presidency? Not in Johnson County. Although Biden, Richardson and uncommitted delegates played their final cards at the county convention, John Edwards still has a strong contingent going to the district convention in April.

Before she volunteered for Sen. Joe Biden’s campaign, Karen Nichols of Coralville was an Obama supporter. She served as the precinct captain for Joe Biden at her caucus in January. But when there weren’t enough Biden people to send a delegate, Edwards, Dodd and Richardson supporters threw their support behind her, so she could become an uncommitted delegate at the county convention.

She wore a wireless microphone for the Iowa Independent during the Johnson County convention to give an insider’s perspective of the process.

In part 1, she registers, meets other non-viable delegates, and talks with Edwards, Clinton and Obama supporters.

In part 2, Nichols makes her final choice. Did she go with Obama, Clinton or Edwards?

Edwards delegate Will Jennings explains his support for the second-place Iowa finisher in this video:

Jennings predicted that Edwards delegates would split evenly between Obama and Clinton.

Husband and wife delegates Amish and Jennifer Trivedi of Iowa City are also Edwards supporters. They describe some of the issues Edwards brought to the presidential campaign in this video:

The county convention is also a chance to create a party platform. DeDe Dancing was gathering delegate signatures to add an amendment to the platform that would make possession of small amounts of marijuana a misdemeanor crime. She said this would help keep jails from overcrowding.

Here is a short interview with the party activist:


Room assignments for county delegates.


Edwards supporter Tom Carsner smiles for the camera at the Johnson County convention.