By Carrie E. Holcomb Phones are ringing nonstop.
Volunteers scurry about.
Despite this, there is a strange calm at Iowa Democratic Party headquarters in Des Moines, almost like the calm before a storm. John Norris sits in his modest office and twirls a phone cord while taking another in a series of seemingly endless phone calls. It is election day 1998 and a day of reckoning for Norris, state chair of the Iowa Democratic Party, who took his position when now Governor Tom Vilsack was far behind in the polls. As with any election, the key players behind the candidates do most of the work prior to election day. By election day, most of what they can do to change the outcome of the election is done.