By Mark Poloncarz
Originally posted on Facebook on January 29, 2016

After what seems to be an eternity of run up debates, town hall forums, and endless talking head discussions on cable TV, the first votes in the 2016 Presidential election will be cast Monday night in Iowa. I won’t opine on the Republican caucus, which I will leave for my friends on the right to discuss, but I believe the Democratic Caucus will ultimately be decided by the supporters of the candidate no one has been talking about: Martin O’Malley.

Many of you are now shaking your heads and wondering why I said this. Here is why: the rules for the Democratic caucus require any candidate to have at least 15% of the total attendees at a caucus location for their support to be counted, and if the candidate does not reach that threshold, then all the supporters of that candidate can elect to caucus with another candidate.

Thus, considering former Governor Martin O’Malley will inevitably not reach the 15% threshold at most caucus sites, and Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are supposedly in a close fight for first, O’Malley’s 3-4% of supporters are up for grabs and can directly impact the final count. It should be very interesting to see where they go and what is the final result on Monday night. No matter what happens, I am glad we are finally at a point were votes will be cast and delegates will be determined.