By Rod Boshart and James Q. Lynch

DES MOINES — For a former state election commissioner who pushed for greater voter participation, Thursday night's record turnout in both the Democratic and Republican precinct caucuses was almost like a dream come true.

"I was ecstatic," Gov. Chet Culver said on Friday. "We've been working on turnout at the caucuses since 1972 and, even in our wildest imagination, to hit a quarter of a million people is pretty amazing," said Culver, who previously served as Iowa secretary of state and commissioner of elections for eight years. "It's never worked better, in my opinion."

Intensely competitive, wide-open races for both major political parties' presidential nominations drove the turnout Thursday, with Democrats attracting about 239,000 participants and Republicans estimating about 120,000 at their statewide precinct gatherings.

That compared to previous peak turnouts of 124,121 Democrats in 2004 caucuses, and the contested 2000 race for Republicans when 87,666 participated, party officials said.

The turnout "absolutely exceeded expectations," according to Linn County Democratic caucus organizer Diane Hoffman of Mount Vernon.

In some cases, she said, attendance was 2.5 times the normal caucus turnout.,

In Toddville, for example, where 30 to 40 people would be considered a good turnout, 145 showed up, she said. Caucuses at Grant Wood Elementary in Cedar Rapids typically draw 200 to 250 Democrats. On Thursday, 450 showed up. And in Mount Vernon South precinct, 350 people caucused despite Cornell College being on winter break.

"If Cornell wasn't on break, it would have hit more than 500 and that would have been a challenge," Hoffman said.

There were similar reports in Johnson County, such as Coralville Precinct 6 where more than 750 Democrats caucused, according to observers.

The surge in caucus attendance was attributed to a number of factors that included more young people, women, first-time caucusgoers and independents who either registered for the first time or switched their status to participate in the nation's leadoff presidential preference test.

"In part, it could have been how much attention the caucuses got. It was nuts the last couple of weeks," said Tim Hagle, a University of Iowa associate professor of political science. "I think that attention may have drawn in more people."

The fact that six Democrats and at least two Republicans — with other GOP contenders to a lesser degree — devoted so much time, attention and advertising to Iowa fueled unprecedented voter interest, he said.

"It's really not that surprising that the Democrats did better in turnout," Hagle noted. "In fact, it's probably more surprising that the Republicans also broke their record in terms of turnout, given that you didn't have quite as much activity for the candidates in the state."

Gordon Fischer — a former Iowa Democratic Party chair who backed Democratic caucus winner, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama — was one of the few people predicting turnout exceeding 200,000 Democrats because of the huge crowds he was seeing at events, but he said Thursday's response even surprised him.

"I was way off," said Fischer, whose bold prediction fell short by 39,000 people.

"I think two factors — enthusiasm for a wonderful field of candidates and concern about the direction of the country — really produced much more interest in the caucuses and the outcome of the caucuses than normal," he said. "There's just a tremendous amount of hunger and desire for change, a feeling that we're on the wrong track and the country needs to be put on the right track."

Fischer also attributed the record turnout to relentless campaign staffs and volunteers who worked phones and Internet/e-mail, did "micro-targeting," knocked on doors and conducted training sessions.

Likewise, representatives of women's groups noted the presence of a top-contending female candidate and heightened political interest in general helped draw more females to Iowa caucus sites.

"We saw unprecedented turnout, record-breaking participation by women, and so many new people entering the process with a desire for change," Ellen R. Malcolm, president of EMILY'S List, said of the Iowa caucuses.

Page Gardner, president and founder of a non-profit, non-partisan group called Women's Voices, Women Vote, said unmarried women in Iowa accounted for 28 percent of all Democratic caucusgoers on Thursday.

"Unmarried women are the largest bloc of nonvoters in the country, yet last night they made up a greater share of the electorate than their overall measure of the entire state population," Gardner said.

Married women, by contrast, were in line with their proportion of the overall population, accounting for 29 percent of the eligible population in Iowa and 29 percent of Democratic caucus attendees, she noted.

"The high turnout of unmarried women making their voices heard in Iowa suggests that unmarried women across the country will make their presence felt at the polls to vote, demanding attention of the candidates," Gardner said.

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