NewsTracker Answers for week of Jan. 02, 2012

Q: Candidates for the Republican presidential nomination swarmed into Iowa to compete in this week's party caucuses – the first step in this year's presidential race. Where in this map is Iowa?

Circle the area on this map


Q: Caucuses are meetings where party members gather to select delegates to a national nominating convention. Primary elections are another way voters elect delegates pledged to particular candidates. Where will the nation's first primary be held?

A. New York

B. New Hampshire

C. New Mexico

D. New Guinea


B. New Hampshire has a state law that says it must be the first state to hold a primary in a presidential election, but the Jan. 10 primary follows Iowa's caucuses. These early contests are important because candidates can gain or lose support - and campaign contributions - based on the vote results.


Q: The Iowa and New Hampshire votes get much more media attention than other state primaries. What percentage of the nation's population live in Iowa and New Hampshire?

A. Less than 1.5%

B. About 3%

C. Nearly 6%

D. More than 60%


A. New Hampshire ranks 42nd in population with about 1.3 million people, and Iowa ranks 30th in population with about 3 million people. With more than 37 million people and nearly 12 percent of the nation's population, California is the most populous state. But, it's primary in June is one of the last votes in this year's race for the nomination.


Q: Some complain that early presidential votes can give a state's voters and businesses undue influence over national policies. Which is the biggest sector of Iowa's economy?

A. Agriculture

B. Finance & insurance

C. Horse trading

D. Manufacturing


D. Iowa is often viewed as a farming state, but manufacturing's share of the state's diversified economy is more than six times larger than agriculture. A relatively low state unemployment rate has made the economy less important to Iowans than most of the nation's voters.


Q: Convention delegates are elected in caucuses and primaries, while voters actually choose electors in the general election for president. These members of the Electoral College generally vote in state capitals to formally elect the president. What is the capital of Iowa?

A. Dubuque

B. Detroit

C. Des Moines

D. Davenport


C. All the electors who meet in Des Moines next December will be pledged to the presidential candidate who receives the most Iowa votes in the November general election. All but two states use the same "winner-take-all" method of picking electors. As it did in 2000, the system can sometimes elect a president who did not receive a majority of the nation's popular vote