Democratic candidates in Iowa will have a little more room to stretch out after Retired General Wesley Clark and U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman said they would skip the Iowa caucuses and focus their campaigns elsewhere.

The decision, which has caught the attention of the state party as well as the national media, has left everyone with the same question — can they win without Iowa?

Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Gordon Fischer said history does not bode well for candidates who forgo Iowa.

Since the 1980s, three candidates — Fritz Hollings in 1984, Al Gore in 1988 and John McCain in 2000 — have skipped the Iowa caucuses. None was successful in his race for the presidency.

“There really isn’t a long pedigree of folks skipping [Iowa] and being successful,” Fischer said.

Steffen Schmidt, professor of political science, called the decision “brilliant.”

“Iowa was not really the right place for them,” Schmidt said.

He said the old saying that a candidate can’t become president without placing in the top three in Iowa is not necessarily true.

“History can change. History is not some frozen thing that goes on forever and ever,” Schmidt said.

He said neither Lieberman nor Clark fit the normal Iowa profile for caucus candidates because they are too conservative.

“Iowa was going to take too much of their time and too much of their money,” Schmidt said.

ISU Democrats President Hannah Schoenthal-Muse said skipping Iowa may have a negative effect on both Lieberman and Clark’s campaigns.

“I don’t think it’s a wise choice on their part, because Iowa definitely matters,” Schoenthal-Muse said.

Schoenthal-Muse said Iowans expect face time with candidates before making a decision on whom to vote for. She said she thought both Lieberman and Clark had a chance in Iowa if they would have campaigned here.

Fischer said the latest poll in Iowa shows a large number of people are undecided on who they would vote for in the 2004 election. Of the people who are decided, two-thirds of them would be willing to change their mind.

“I think people are a little disappointed, because I think there was affection for both [candidates],” Fischer said.