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Today I received no less than seven missives from the Romney e-mail machine including one highlighting the anti-McCain/immigration ad. All were negative attacks on either Huckabee or McCain. Does this permeate to Iowa voters and if so does the barrage of attacks turn them off? The public complains about negative campaigning but candidates do it because it is often successful. Whether that, plus superior organization, is enough to save Romney's multi-million dollar investment in Iowa remains to be seen. On the organizational front, the Romney advantage here may be overestimated. Republican caucus voters essentially just show up and vote unlike the laborious process on the Democratic side which relies on activists to make the case for their candidate and sway their friends and neighbors. Steffen Schmidt, Iowa State political science professor and caucus guru, agrees that Huckabee trails badly in organizational muscle but concludes he "doesn't need it since they vote straight out at each caucus." In other words, if Phil's anecdotal evidence is correct -- Huckabee has the advantage in enthusiasm -- that may be more than enough to overcome Romney's elaborate organizational and communications effort.

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Immigration