Georgia volunteers playing role in Iowa

Georgia volunteers canvassed communities in Iowa as they worked to sway voters before the first official event of the 2012 presidential election.

Channel 2’s John Bachman spoke with several Georgia residents who are volunteering their time to support campaigns, and not necessarily the campaign of Georgia native Newt Gingrich.

Bobby Morehead drove through the night from Carrollton to campaign for his candidate, Republican Ron Paul.

"It's cold. I like the caucus," Morehead told Bachman. The Georgia volunteer feels he’s making a difference while helping the Paul campaign target 1,800 precincts.

"Face-to-face does more than phone calls. They really want you to do phone calls, but I can do that from Georgia," Morehead said.

"It's one thing to back a candidate, but then it’s another thing to drive 17 hours through the night to Iowa in January. It's worth it. It means too much. You have to get up here and work hard," Morehead added.

Bachman listened in on Monday as dozens of volunteers for Gingrich called potential supporters. Tuesday, Bachman spoke with Atlanta resident Tim Johnson, who helped organize precinct captains for Mitt Romney.

"I calculated that the money it would cost me to do this was far less than the money it's cost me the last three years, given the economy," Johnson said.

Ann Selzer, with the Des Moines Register, has a perfect record of predicting the winner, but Selzer told Bachman, this year’s is one of the hardest caucuses she’s ever had to read.

"I've never seen a race this volatile.  As we were looking at results day by day, this is some rodeo. People moving in and people moving out," Selzer said.

Selzer has conducted the Des Moines Register poll for five of the last six caucuses.  She's predicted the winner every time.  Her poll has Romney edging out Paul by 24 percent to 22 percent.

"So Romney, by holding steady, ends up still at the top of our leaderboard, but I think that's a precarious position, given how fast Rick Santorum was moving," Selzer said.

Selzer told Bachman in the last two days of her polling, Santorum surged, Paul dropped, Romney held steady at the top and Gingrich held steady in fourth.

"Steady. So it seems like he has a base of support and that's what it's going to be," Selzer said about Gingrich.