Iowa caucuses

What a thriller the Iowa caucuses last night turned out to be! And my prayers were almost heard! Almost! :-) Mitt Romney won Iowa by 8 more votes than Rick Santorum (30,015 vs. 30.007)! Romney won 24,6% of the votes, Santorum got 24,5%, Ron Paul 21,4%, Newt Gingrich 13,3%, Rick Perry 10,3%, the Norwegian-American Michele Bachmann 5%, Jon Huntsman 0,6% (but he didn't spend much time in Iowa if any at all), 0,1% had no preference (135 people), 0,1% voted for other candidates (who?), while Herman Cain, who suspended his campaign last month, got 58 votes. All according to Des Moines Register.

Iowa's Republican party only provides 28 delegates to the party convention in August. The caucus is said to give one or more candidates a boost before the later primaries, but is not necessarily that important after all. John McCain became no. 4 in 2008, but made a great comeback in New Hampshire and never really looked back. Not that I think Gingrich will follow in McCain's footsteps. According to the polls (source Real Clear Politics) he is still in the lead in South Carolina and Florida, but Gingrich's popularity has dropped since the polls took place and even if he might still do relatively well in those states, it will not be enough to stop Romney's parade towards August victory.

Even if Romney just about won Iowa, one could say that Santorum became "the true winner" if one considers how far behind he was in the polls only a couple of weeks ago. His "barnstorming" (how I love this expression!) of Iowa paid off. He will enjoy the sun for a while, and it will be interesting to see how much he can climb in popularity in South Carolina and Florida, but most commentaries today don't believe in his future beyond that.

I still haven't found any website which shows the GOP delegate count after the Iowa caucus. That could be because the delegates are not formally elected yet. The path goes from the precinct caucuses via the county and district conventions to the Iowa state convention, which actually chooses the delegates. In theory they are unbound from the results of the precinct caucuses. So different election system from I am used to here in Norway, but very fascinating! If the delegates were bound to follow the results, Romney and Santorum would have won 7 each, Paul 6, Gingrich 4, Perry 3 and Bachmann 1. If I have got the math right, that is!

Michele Bachmann, who was born in Iowa and represent the neighbour state Minnesota in the US House of Representatives, decided to suspend her campaign today, just as I predicted yesterday. There were rumours earlier today that Perry was about to give up as well, but he has decided to go on. It will probably not last for long, though.

The New Hampshire primary takes place on 10 January 2012. As I have already commented on, Romney is sure to win, and the question is only how big the percentage will be. 45% perhaps? And can Jon Huntsman create a few headlines? Time will show. I will not be able to blog about every primary or caucus this spring - and of course there are other bloggers who will write far better comments and analysis than I can - but you can be sure that I will continue to follow the campaign with great interest!

The only thing I wonder about is how to get photos (free of use) of the various candidates? I have checked their websites, but not found pages which includes photos "in the public domain". Anyone who can help me out? E-mails and tweets to Romney's campaign office has not helped so far... The blog could need some illustrations in connection with my US elections comments.

Updated on Thursday 5 January 2012 at 15.45 (subject title).

US Presidential Election 2012, Iowa caucuses

Finally the day has come! The US Presidential Election 2012 opens with the Iowa caucus tonight. As I have written earlier, I am very interested in US politics and have looked forward to this year's campaign for a long time.

The former Governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney, has more or less been campaigning ever since he lost the GOP nomination in 2008 to John McCain, and many consider him to be «the next in line» to front the party in this year's election. He is supported by the majority of the Republican establishment, he is in the lead among the Republican candidates concerning fundraising, he has solid business experience which surely will be helpful and the polls show that he has the greatest chance to beat President Barack Obama.

It is of course far too early to predict who will win the election in November, but as of now I think the chances of Mitt Romney becoming the next US President is greater than that Obama will be re-elected. The economy is the main reason for this. According to Cafferty File no president since Roosevelt has won re-election with unemployment over 7.2% The current rate is today 8.6%, and no-one seriously expects that it will be anywhere near 7.2% in November. But if the economy shows signs of improvement in the fall, Obama might surprise us after all.

The GOP campaign has been interesting to watch the last few months. Romney is obviously one of the Republican candidates closest to the political center, and for the Republican (Christian-Conservative) right he is just not conservative enough. The «anyone but Mitt» slogan has dominated in the GOP campaign so far, where more conservative politicians, supported by the Tea Party, have give given Romney a true challenge for a while but then slipped behind again – Pawlenty, Bachmann, Perry, Cain and Gingrich have all come and gone. Romney's position has not weakened. Tonight only Mitt Romney, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum have a chance to win the Iowa caucus, and to keep some excitement a few more weeks I almost hope that Santorum will win the majority of delegates!

Romney doesn't need to win tonight, he is certain to win in New Hampshire and will probably take South Carolina unless Santorum's campaign should catch more wind if he does well tonight. Gingrich shouldn't be ruled out completely, but as I have already hinted I would be really surprised if Romney doesn't win the nomination in the end. It will be more exciting to see who he will choose as his VP candidate. He might have to pick a more conservative partner in order to please the right wing of his party, but the VP can't be too conservative either as it would surely scare off too many of the independent, centrist votes. I will come back to this later on.

The results of the Iowa caucus is expected to be ready around 3 a.m. Norwegian time. I would love to stay up to follow the news as the results come in, but as my 17 months old daughter has not given me the best sleep the last couple of nights, I will have to wait until tomorrow to get the latest news of the campaign. I plan to visit the United States in the summer and really hope that I will be able to follow the election campaign more closely then.

I have to include some genealogy in this article as well. It is after all one of my main interests. Fortunately the website of the genealogist William A. Reitwiesner, who died in 2010, is still in existence. At his website Wargs.com you can find the ancestry tables of Mitt Romney, Jon Huntsman, Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich. Rick Santorum is not listed, but you can find some details here and here. I have blogged about Michele Bachmann, née Amble, earlier. I haven't had the time yet to do more research on her Norwegian ancestry, but you will find some details here, here and here. One of Rick Perry's great-great grandfathers was a Choctaw (Native American) according to this page. Yet another page with information on his ancestry can be found here. And finally, go here for a collection of the presidential candidates' ancestries. I can of course not speak for the accuracy of information given at the various websites I have provided links to.

Updated on Thursday 5 January 2012 at 15.45 (subject title).

About notable Norwegian-Americans ... and Karl Rove

Towards the end of my vacation in July this year the website Side3.no, owned by the media company Mediehuset Nettavisen, which also owns the first Norwegian online newspaper Nettavisen, published a survey of notable Norwegian-Americans. The article of 25 July 2011 was titled "Her er norsk-amerikanerne" ("Here are the Norwegian-Americans"). Such surveys are rather "timeless", so I am not too bothered about the fact that I haven't found the time to comment on it until now, more than two weeks later. There are of course plenty of such lists on the Internet, including Wikipedia and the Norwegian-American Hall of Fame, but the topic is well worth revisiting.

Side3.no's article lists among others several top politicians, including former Vice Presidents Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale (I was, by the way, pleased to get the opportunity to shake hands with the latter during his visit to Oslo in 2009) as well as Governors Knute Nelson and Earl Warren (the latter was also a chief justice), models and celebrities such as CariDee English and Paris Hilton, actors (Dynasty soap star Linda Evans, James Arness, Marilyn Monroe and Renee Zellweger), Academy Awards winners (James Cagney and Jennifer Connelly), musicians Matt Sorum and Tom Waits, sports stars like Knut Rockne and Sonny Jurgensen, etc.

The list is almost endless. It is of course a discussion on its own who should be regarded as "notable" and who should not, but it is as interesting to note the many rather well-known persons who were not mentioned. The road racing cyclist Lance Armstrong, who was born Gunderson, is one example. Comments to the article (go to the bottom of the website) mention among others Atlanta Thrashers ice hockey player Justin Byfuglien, who won the Stanley Cup with Chicago in 2010 (go here for a discussion about his ancestry) and actress Kirsten Vangsness of "Criminal Minds". I'd like to add my grandmother Torborg Hoelseth's first cousin Bjorn Egeli (1900-1984), a notable artist (all his five children - Peter, Cedric, Bjorn James, Mary Lois and Carolyn - and at least four grandchildren - Lisa Egeli, Arthur Bjorn Egeli, Anastasia Egeli Deppe and Ingrid Egeli McGuckian - have followed in his path) who originally came from Horten in Vestfold, but whose Egeli/Ekeli family originates from Haukeli in Vinje, Telemark.

The GOP presidential candidate Congresswoman Michele Bachmann as well as Senator John Thune are not mentioned. Senator Thune decided in February this year not to run for president in 2012, so his omission from the list might be understood, but it is rather strange that the journalist has forgotten about Bachmann. I don't think she will be nominated for the Republicans - I am rather certain that it will either be former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney or Texas Governor Rick Perry - but Bachmann has certainly made a name for herself. Despite my doubts about her winning chances, she is a strong candidate and will certainly win a decent number of delegates. I have earlier promised to write something about her ancestry, and hope to get more time to do more research in the winter. In the meantime you can read George Gooding's article on the subject (see also his report written in English). I have earlier opened a discussion about her at the genealogy forum at Digitalarkivet. Concerning John Thune, I have got some more details from one of his Norwegian third cousins and hope to come back with more details later.

But one name stands out in the survey of politicians among the notable Norwegian-Americans: Karl Rove, the political consultant (and brilliant election strategist) who served as President George W. Bush's Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff from February 2001 until August 2007. Rove, who was born in Colorado in 1950 but grew up in Nevada, is a Norwegian-American by adoption only. So does he really belong to such a list? Well, it depends on what definition you want to use.

According to Karl Rove's autobiography Courage and Consequence. My Life as a Conservative in the Fight (2010), which I still have only read the first chapter of, Louis Claude Rove Jr. (1928-2004), who originally came from Wisconsin, adopted Karl and his older brother Eric, when he married their mother Reba, née Wood (1929-1981). Karl learned about the truth only after his parents were divorced in 1970. He has met his biological father, whose name has not been revealed (but is not relevant to this story), but neither were interested in having any further contact.

One could perhaps use a "cultural definition", but from the little I have read about Rove in interviews as well as the first chapter of the said autobiography, he doesn't strike me as having been brought up in a particular Norwegian-American "Fargo"-like environment (those who have seen the movie "Fargo" know what I mean) with lefse and lutefisk on the dinner table. I could be wrong, of course, and it would be interesting to get Rove to comment on this one day, but as of now that is the impression I have got.

But it is evident that Karl Rove clearly identifies himself as a Norwegian-American. Throughout the book he refers to Louis C. Rove as "my father", has often made a point of his Norwegian connection in interviews and speeches and according to VG Nett (16 May 2003) he had a portrait of his great grandfather (i.e. Louis Rove's grandfather) Olaf Julius Rove on the wall in his White House office and he has also visitied Norway together with his stepfather. So I guess it is not totally wrong to include Karl Rove in such a list of notable Norwegian-Americans, but it should still have been mentioned that the connection goes through his stepfather. One should of course not rule out the possibility that Rove could have Norwegian ancestry somehow through his mother's parents Robert G. and Elsie Wood or through his biological father, but as Rove doesn't mention it himself, it is a long shot.

So, what exactly is Louis C. Rove's Norwegian connection? Rove descends from the farm with the same name at Kirkeøy in Hvaler in the Norwegian county of Østfold. You can find a photo of the farm in Fredriksstad Blad's article "Det startet på Rove" ("It started at Rove") published on 5 November 2005. In the national census of 1865 one can find the Rove ancestor Andreas Johannessen Rove living in Frederikshald (today Halden) together with among others his wife Magdalene Jonsdatter, his son watchmaker Severin M. and daughter-in-law Gunhilde (Azora), née Olsen/Olsdatter, and several grandchildren. One of them was Olaf Julius Herman Emil Rove, b. 15 April 1864 and christened as late as 23 April 1865 (see no. 34). He emigrated 22 years old to Wisconsin in the United States where he married the Swedish-born Emma, b. 1863, and had at least 2 sons, Louis C. Rode (1895-1967) and Olaf N. Rode (1898-1980). My sources are several US censuses found at Ancestry.com, SSDI etc. Louis was the father of the previously mentioned Louis C. Rove, Jr., the stepfather of Karl Rove. I am sure I could have found more details if I had done a more thorough research, but this will do for now.

I have been told by a distant Norwegian relative of the late Louis C. Rove that also the explorer Roald Amundsen (1872-1928) of South Pole 1911 fame descended from the same Rove family, but I have not got the details on exactly how he was related to the line mentioned above. As far as I understand it, and this must be taken with some reservation, it is not from Andreas Rove, so the connection must be further back. That is of course a topic I could get back to another time.

Updated on Monday 15 August 2011 at 08.25 (minor text addition, typos corrected), last time on Friday 7 December 2012 at 11:10 (typo corrected).

USA: Michele Bachmann is planning to form a presidential exploratory committee

Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, who is of Norwegian descent, is getting closer to a bid for GOP nomination. According to CNN reports yesterday she is planning to form a presidential exploratory committee.

Read Politico's article Michele Bachmann could shake up GOP field, published on 24 March 2011.

Some of Bachmann's ancestry can be found here (also published earlier). If she really decides to run, I will try to do some research on her Norwegian roots.

Another Norwegian-American who might run for GOP nomination

Earlier this month I wrote about Republican politicians who are considered as possible candidates for GOP nomination in 2012. One of them was the Norwegian-American Senator John Thune (SD), whose grandfather Nikolai Gjelsvik came to the United States in 1906. According to Naustdal Sogelag (Naustdal Historical Society), Nikolai and his brother Mattias (Matthew) emigrated from Gjelsvik (in today's Askvoll municipality, Sogn og Fjordane) in Førdefjorden. I believe I have found the above-mentioned brothers in the emigrant protocol here. I haven't yet got the time to look for their registered christenings and confirmations, though.

In the blog article I joked that "Of course the world needs a President of Norwegian ancestry!" I didn't know by then that another possible candidate for GOP nomination, Michele Bachmann, is also of Norwegian ancestry. Congresswoman Bachmann is representing the 6th District of Minnesota. I didn't include her in my list of potential candidates, though - I guess I found her to be too right-wing to have much chance. The Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten wrote about her today, describing her as a ""Norwegian" challenger to Sarah Palin", yet another candidate linked to the Tea Party movement.

Bachmann has got some attention for her speech at an Iowan for Tax Relief event (see also here and here) where she told that "her ancestors did not come to this country for handouts, welfare and socialized medicine, but for mere opportunity". Oh well, there could have been different "pull and push" factors which made her ancestors to emigrate to the United States, and a homestead was probably one of them. Couldn't that be described as a "handout"?

Anyway, Michele Bachmann's maiden name was Amble, and some of her ancestry has been published at Rootsweb. Her great-great grandfather Nils Anfindsen Amble came from Sogndal in Western Norway. The information should be double-checked by using primary sources in Norway, though. Only references to the bygdebok (parish book) seem to have been given so far.

Postscript 1 February 2011 at 19:40: I have created two new discussion threads at the Norwegian Arkivverket's Users' forum:

Michele Bachman, née Amble: Topic 69. Created 1 February 2011.
John Thune: Topic 70. Created 1 February 2011.

Hopefully more information on their ancestry will be added eventually!

Updated on 3 February 2011 at 11.00 (typos corrected).