The TicketDes Moines business owners enjoy caucus stimulus, but weren’t suffering
DES MOINES, Iowa--Don't tell Iowans that politicians don't know how to stimulate the economy.
Thanks to the presence of the six major presidential candidates criss-crossing the state in anticipation of Tuesday's Republican caucuses, an influx of journalists, political staffers, candidate supporters and even Occupy Des Moines protesters is boosting Iowa's economy this week and next.
"The area codes on the reservations books … are all New York, D.C., Virginia and Chicago numbers," Chris Diebel, the marketing director for Orchestrate Hospitality, told Yahoo News of Centro and Django, two of the company's restaurants in Des Moines.
"Most everybody downtown is pretty much sold out," Skip Hammerman, the general manager of the Embassy Suites On the River in Des Moines, told Yahoo News of local hotel business. "Typically it would a fairly slow time in hotel business in this type of environment."
The visitors are paying for transportation, food, lodging and more, all while the political staffs are organizing events and fundraisers at local venues.
There is one big difference between the 2012 caucuses and the one held four years ago: this time, only one party is in town.
"From our perspective, we're not seeing the same level of large scale campaign events as last cycle," Diebel said.
In 2008, the Greater Des Moines area hosted 2,500 members of the news media and experienced a $25 million economic boost, Tiffany Tauscheck, the vice president of marketing for the Greater Des Moines Convention & Visitors Bureau, told Yahoo News.
This year, Tauscheck is preparing for 1,500 journalists. She said it's too soon to estimate the financial windfall.
"One party already has selected their nominee, so that has changed the dynamic a little bit," Tauscheck said.
The positive economic effects of the caucuses might bolster the argument of some political observers that Iowa--and New Hampshire--shouldn't get to go first in the presidential selection process every four years. It's not clear, after all, that Iowa's economy needs a stimulus.
The state's unemployment rate is 5.7 percent, far below the 8.6 percent national average.
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