Cruz’ gamified Iowa ground game could be formidable

This is interesting. Ted Cruz has literally gamified his Iowa ground game. It almost makes me want go to Tedcruz.org and sign up to see who in Delaware is the points king.

In addition to traditional Evangelical ring-kissing and Pizza Ranch-stumping tactics, Cruz has cultivated a strong grassroots presence online. The Cruz mobile app, which game-ifies the campaign process — users win points for sharing their contact lists or for posting messages of support to Facebook and Twitter — has close to 30,000 downloads, according to Chris Wilson, head of analytics for the campaign.

In a rural state like Iowa, some supporters say they’ve developed a sense of community from the app. Linda Stickle lives in Stone City, an eastern Iowa town that Grant Wood of American Gothic fame once painted in all its undulating stillness. “It’s a suburb of Anamosa,” Stickle said, adding wryly, “Anamosa has 5,000 people.”

Stickle, 66, whose husband farms, has a number of what she calls “rural contacts” — she spent a summer delivering bulls via truck to farmers all over the state. She has acted as a Cruz proxy at gatherings in her county. “I have met so many wonderful people and I have made relationships, just doing this,” Stickle said.

Her friend Kay Quirk, 61, of Buena Vista County, in the northwestern part of the state, agreed. “My husband says it’s a good thing we don’t live closer to you because then he would never see me!” she said to Stickle.

Quirk holds the No. 1 slot on the Cruz Crew Iowa leaderboard with nearly 172,000 points (Stickle is No. 3 in the state with over 30,000) and says she devotes a couple of hours a day to posting to Twitter and Facebook. “Ted Cruz called me the ‘Twitter warrior,’ ” she said.