Iowa caucus for Republicans

The Trail at WashPost has a piece about Thompson's woeful campaign. He's making a last stand in Iowa. Here's a snippet:

Thompson ranks near the very bottom of the pack in New Hampshire, averaging support from about 4 percent of the likely Republican voters there. In Iowa, he he doing better -- averaging about 10 percent support -- though he still trails the leaders, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.

Thompson advisers say they believe he might end up being the recipient of votes from Iowa voters who become disillusioned with the increasingly negative tone of the battle between Huckabee and Romney.

Polling suggests Thompson might be the second choice for as many as 40 percent of Huckabee's voters.

"We plan to campaign vigorously and actively in all of the early primary states, but the Iowa caucus is first and that's where we will be spending our time until the people of Iowa vote," Harris said.

A quick note on this. It doesn't matter who's anybody's second choice on the Republican side, becuase they don't have a viability threshhold. Here's a rundown on how the caucuses work:

On caucus night, Iowans gather by party preference to elect delegates to the 99 county conventions. Presidential preference on the Republican side is done with a straw vote of those attending the caucus. This vote is sometimes done by a show of hands or by dividing themselves into groups according to candidate. In precincts that elect only 1 delegate they choose the delegate by majority vote and it must be a paper ballot. Democratic candidates must receive at least 15 percent of the votes in that precinct to move on to the county convention. If a candidate receives less than 15 percent of the votes, supporters of non-viable candidates have the option to join a viable candidate group, join another non-viable candidate group to become viable, join other groups to form an uncommitted group or chose to go nowhere and not be counted. Non-viable groups have up to 30 minutes to realign, if they fail to do so in that time, they can ask the for more time, which is voted on by the caucus as a whole. If the caucus refuses, re-alignment is done and delegates are awarded.