DES MOINES, Iowa -- Candidates from both major political parties spread throughout Iowa on Saturday, urging supporters to turn out for Monday night's caucuses -- the candidates' first test in the 2016 presidential contests. More than 250,000 Iowans are expected to weigh in at those caucuses.
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On the Republican side, billionaire businessman Donald Trump, who spent Saturday barnstorming across eastern Iowa, projected the confidence that has defined his campaign, even as he faced attacks from two rivals, Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida.
Trump barely dwelt on them, saying in an interview that he was already looking ahead to the prospect of his general election matchup against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
On the Democratic side, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont implored Iowa supporters Saturday to get on their feet in two days and convert their interest in his campaign against Clinton into actual votes.
That call to action was echoed by all of the hopefuls as they worked to motivate Iowans to summon the time and energy to attend the caucuses.
Cruz and Trump were both trumpeting anti-establishment messages, and the caucuses will show how a sitting senator measures up against a businessman who has never held elective office.
Rubio, who is touting himself as a next-generation leader, was running third in most polls and hoping for a strong showing in Iowa to bolster his campaign.
Cruz has challenged Rubio's conservative credentials on the airwaves while ignoring him face to face with Iowans. One Cruz ad said of Rubio: "Tax hikes. Amnesty. The Republican Obama."
"The desperation kicks in," Rubio said in response to Cruz. "From my experience, when people start attacking you, it's because you're doing something right."
Cruz's campaign drew criticism from Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate over a mailer sent to potential voters that seemed designed to look like an official notice warning recipients about "low expected voter turnout in your area." The mailer refers to a "voting violation" and grades the recipient's voting history and that of several neighbors, citing public records.
Pate said Cruz's campaign "misrepresents Iowa election law." There's "no such thing as an election violation related to frequency of voting," he said, and insinuating otherwise is "not in keeping in the spirit of the Iowa caucuses."
Cruz told reporters in Sioux City that the mailing was "routine." He said he wouldn't apologize for "using every tool we can" to encourage Iowa residents to vote.
Cruz also said, before a town-hall meeting in Sioux City, that he remained hopeful Trump would accept his invitation for a one-on-one debate.
Trump boycotted Thursday night's GOP debate, the last before the caucuses, because of a dispute with Fox News. He instead held a rally at which he said he raised $6 million for veterans.
On Saturday, Trump presented a $100,000 check to the Puppy Jake Foundation, which provides service dogs to wounded veterans, as the first disbursement of the money raised.
Speaking to a Dubuque crowd early Saturday, Trump urged Iowa voters to get to the caucus Monday, even if a winter storm arrives early, saying "You're from Iowa. Are you afraid of snow?"
The National Weather Service says snow is expected to start falling in the state close to midnight Monday. The caucuses are at 7 p.m. While the snow shouldn't hinder caucus attendees, its timing could complicate Tuesday travel for any candidates left in the state.
Trump made an entrance at the Dubuque rally. His jet flew low over a hangar half-filled with the waiting crowd, and music played from the movie Air Force One. There was more drama inside, as a small group of protesters interrupted him, and Trump joined the crowd in chanting "USA" to drown out the discord.
He asked security officials to "get them out" but "don't hurt them."
In Ida Grove, Cruz said in response to a question about school lunches that he wants to abolish the U.S. Department of Education and leave decisions like what to serve for lunch to states and school districts.
Clinton, Sanders
Among the Democrats, the race between Clinton and Sanders appeared to be tight in Iowa, according to public polls and the campaigns' own surveys.
At a rally in Manchester, Iowa, Sanders called the Democratic contest a likely toss-up.
"It's virtually tied," Sanders said. "We will win the caucus on Monday night if there is a large voter turnout. We will lose the caucus on Monday night if there is a low voter turnout."
Clinton, a former secretary of state and former U.S senator, campaigned at Iowa State University in Ames with gun-control advocates Gabby Giffords and Giffords' husband Mark Kelly, drawing an implicit contrast between her push for stricter firearms laws and Sanders' mixed record on guns.
Clinton's campaign has highlighted Sanders' vote for 2005 legislation that granted gun manufacturers immunity and his vote against the Brady bill.
"How can we continue to ignore the toll that this is taking on our children and our country?" Clinton asked. "When you go to caucus Monday night please think of this."
Sanders noted that he has a D-minus grade from the National Rifle Association, so "don't tell me that I'm defending or protecting the gun lobby."
At a stop in Charles City, Iowa, Sanders said a Clinton ad in which she says the nation should defend Planned Parenthood and "not attack it" implies that Sanders has opposed the organization. Sanders said he has a "100 percent lifetime voting record for Planned Parenthood."
Meanwhile, Trump joined other Republicans in pouncing on the news that Clinton's private computer server had handled messages that were later deemed "top secret," saying in a post on Twitter: "At a minimum, how can someone with such bad judgment be our next president?"
"This thing with her emails is a big deal," Rubio said in Sioux City on Saturday. "I can tell you this, she thinks she's above the law."
Cruz expressed dismay that Clinton has not been indicted.
Earlier in his campaign, Sanders declared the email flap a nonissue in his mind.
But at Sanders' rally in Manchester, Ruth Lewin, a retired grocery store clerk and child care provider, said the news about Clinton's emails reinforced why she will be caucusing for Sanders on Monday.
"It's a matter of honesty, integrity along with other issues I have about her," Lewin said. "When you get $600,000 for a speaking engagement, I mean that's more than I've made in my entire lifetime."
The Clinton and Sanders campaigns have reached an agreement to hold a debate in New Hampshire this week. The tentative New Hampshire event is to be Thursday, giving voters a chance to see the field debate before that state's primary Feb. 9.
The arrangement still needs the approval of the Democratic National Committee.
Both campaigns said Saturday that they would welcome such a debate next week. Each attached caveats, however, and proposed different terms for adding three additional debates to the previously sanctioned debate schedule.
The third Democrat in the race, former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, has said he would debate anywhere, anytime, and O'Malley campaign spokesman Lis Smith said he has agreed to the additional four debates.
caucusing rituals
Around Iowa, residents took a variety of stances about the candidates and the process of the caucuses.
The caucuses are not designed for anonymity: Everyone arrives at once, and each can make a pitch for his favorite candidates in front of the entire group. While the Republicans vote secretly on scraps of paper, the process for Democrats requires caucusgoers to declare their preference by physically standing in a candidate's designated corner.
But one tradition of the Iowa caucuses is a rarity these days: Five precinct caucuses -- three Democratic and two Republican -- are still held in a private home.
Sharon McNutt and her husband, Gary, who have hosted Republican caucuses at their home in rural Mills County for more than a decade, say it helps make politics more accessible to people who may be intimidated by the process.
In a grocery store parking lot in Waukon, a town of 3,900 people, Bob Hager, the Republican chairman of Allamakee County, and Jeff Abbas, a Democrat, joked about their political differences.
Hager described how a co-worker had threatened to steal the Bernie Sanders signs from Abbas' front yard. Abbas laughed and said: "I put those up on big T posts, which I electrified underground. So if he touches them, he's in trouble."
Jordan Pope, chairman of the Decatur County Democrats, who, at 18, is the youngest county chairman in Iowa, said "I have friends in Texas and Alabama, and they're always jealous when they see me taking selfies with presidential candidates. Yeah, you have primaries there, but the main way they see their candidates is on a TV screen."
Information for this article was contributed by Patrick Healy, Alicia Parlapiano, Brent McDonald, Larry Buchanan, John Leland and Alan Rappeport of The New York Times; by Ken Thomas, Scott Bauer, Steve Peoples, Lisa Lerer, Tom Beaumont, Catherine Lucey and Julie Bykowicz of The Associated Press; and by Abby Phillip and John Wagner of The Washington Post.
A Section on 01/31/2016