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Iowa primary precinct caucus and caucuses news, reports
and information on 2004 Democrat and Republican candidates, campaigns
and issues
IOWA
DAILY REPORT Holding
the Democrats accountable today, tomorrow...forever.
PAGE 1
Tuesday,
Aug. 12, 2003
Quotable:
“Whether he's the front-runner
in a conventional sense is another question;
although surging in money and at the polls, Dean
lacks the support from party leaders and
institutions that usually marks a front-runner.”
– Los Angeles Times columnist Ronald Brownstein,
commenting on the Dean surge
Quotable:
“Before you can deal
with the wilderness, Mr. Senator, you have to
deal with the burning Bush."
– Sharpton,
responding to Lieberman’s criticism of
GWB policies at Philadelphia forum involving
Dem hopefuls last night
Quotable:
“With so many competing
constituencies making up the Democratic Party,
it’s little wonder that no candidate can
emerge from the primary with a coherent,
intellectually consistent agenda.”
– Editorial from yesterday’s The Union
Leader
Quotable:
“The problem is that
unlike Goldwater, it's hard to say that
Dean has any coherent philosophy of
government.”
– Best of Web’s James Taranto
Quotable:
“Bush is there as a
result of us going to sleep."
– Sharpton, encouraging blacks to vote
at South Carolina church
Quotable:
“You act like I'm the
only one who might lose. Eight folks are going
to lose.”
– Sharpton
Quotable:
“How many candidates are there? Nine, 10? I
could probably name them if you forced me to,
but I could probably give you the Cubs'
starting line up a lot easier."
-- Illinois Gov. Blagojevich,
who skipped AFL-CIO forum last week to be with
family
Quotable:
“Dean's
‘Internetization’ has just as often been an
unplanned, unruly process for a campaign that
didn't start out with a technical agenda,
or even a technically-savvy candidate.”
– Boston Globe staffer Joanna Weiss,
writing that Dean’s Internet success
has been something of a renegade, volunteer
operation. Iowa State Fair:
It’s
Firestone Agricultural Tire Day at the
fair – visit Bigfoot, the original monster
truck, at the Firestone Tent. The 40th annual
Iowa Farm Bureau Cookout Contest is on the
Grand Concourse. Deery Brothers Summer Series
auto racing – including a car sponsored by
Graham – on the fairgrounds dirt track
tonight.
GENERAL
NEWS:
Among
the offerings in today's update:
At nine and
holding – Biden out, says with “late
start” he would have needed perfect
situation to succeed
Union
Leader editorial credits Kucinich with
possibly being the “most consistent
candidate” while his Dem rivals make the
campaign look like a “waffle house”
This is
almost too good – or too funny – as the
seven wannabes at Philly forum last night
promised (in differing degrees) to cut Bush
tax cuts. The problem, however, is that
nobody (except Iowa Pres Watch) cares since
most real political reporters are out
covering CA chaos
Washington Times reports that the
Bush-Cheney campaign plans to make “strong
play” to win in CA and NY – the states the
Dems must have to succeed
Smokin’
Joe Lieberman, in News Hampshire, drops
(temporarily) criticism of rivals to go
after Bush, says country needs new
leadership
LA Times’
Brownstein says top priority for Dean
– “the race’s pacesetter and driving force”
– is convincing the “party leadership he’s
not a sure loser against Bush”
Edwards –
second on latest SC poll – turns up rhetoric
against Bush during weekend campaign stop
Boston
Globe: Dean – current king of Internet
politics – didn’t use computer in office or
have a state e-mail account as VT gov
Sharpton
criticizes Bush & urges blacks to vote
during South Carolina sermon
Best of
Web’s Taranto studies some possible Dean
comparisons: McGovern? Carter?
Goldwater?
Life in New
Hampshire (and Iowa): Chicago Tribune report
highlights wannabe efforts to woo key
supporters…Issue: Stonewall Dems
denouncing GOP efforts to codify marriage
Washington
Post reports that despite concerns about
economy and Iraq, even Dem strategists
believe it’s “unlikely” the party will
retake the U.S. House in ’04
Sports:
Eastern Iowa team headed into Little League
World Series
Iowaism:
Iowa’s new “virtual school” – based in
Pocahontas – being introduced to IA
parents this week
All these stories below and more.
Morning reports:
... The Sioux
City Journal reported today that the Army
Corps of Engineers has started dropping
Missouri River water levels to comply with
a federal judge’s order by this evening. The
corps yesterday slowed the water releases from
26,000 cubic feet per second to 25,000 cfs
– the minimum needed for navigation. It
will continue dropping the flow until it
reaches 21,000 cfs
... Morning news reports say the Meskwaki
casino near Tama could remain closed until
December after the tribe’s elected council
set 10/21 for a recall election. The
casino-hotel complex was shut down in May by
federal court order because of tribal
leadership disputes
… Still
only one wannabe on the Iowa horizon. Graham
continues his “vacation” tour with stops
scheduled in Calmar, Dyersville – where the
Graham family will play baseball on the Field
of Dreams complex – and Dubuque.
Edwards to start “Main Street Tour”
tomorrow in eastern Iowa. Several wannabes
expected in Waterloo tomorrow for the
Iowa Federation of Labor state convention.
… Still only one
Joe entered in Dem Derby after Biden bows out.
Excerpts from report by Beth Miller, staff
reporter for the New Castle-Wilmington News
Journal: “Sen. Joe Biden, Delaware’s senior
senator and the ranking member of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee, announced today
that he would not run for president in 2004.
Biden, 60, ran for president in 1988.
But the six-term senator will not do so again.
‘As I said I was going to do, I have taken a
long and hard look at what it would take to
win my party’s nomination. My goal is to
influence the direction of our country because
I am deeply concerned that we are heading in
the wrong direction at home and abroad,’
Biden said. ‘Obviously, the best way to
do that would be as the Democratic nominee for
president. But, at this late date,
everything would have to fall perfectly into
place, and I would have to put on hold
what influence I have in the United States
Senate in pursuit of what is now too much of a
long shot. Ultimately, a decision of this
nature is intensely personal and my
experiences have taught me under such
circumstances to follow my own instincts. At
this moment, my instincts tell me that the
best way for me to work to enhance America’s
national security and to fight for economic
security for the middle class is to remain in
the United States Senate. From there I will
also attempt to influence the positions taken
by my party’s nominee on these issues.
Therefore, at this time, I am not entering the
race for the Democratic nomination for
President.’”
… “Waffle
house: Democrats pander to special interests”
– headline from editorial in yesterday’s The
Union Leader. Editorial excerpt: “Dennis
Kucinich, the Ohio congressman who is running
for the Democratic nomination for President in
part because he wants to create a federal
Department of Peace, is possibly the most
consistent candidate in the crowded Democratic
field.
We say ‘possibly’ because there has been so
little coverage of his campaign that we aren’t
sure whether he is waffling or not. The
rest of the candidates, however, are firing up
the old waffle iron pretty regularly. The
Washington Post last week lamented ‘the
apologetic tone’ with which some of the
candidates defended their votes for free trade
while at an AFL-CIO forum. This tone has been
a hallmark of this campaign, primarily because
the Democratic Party is a coalition of
various special interest groups and none of
the candidates is fully consistent with the
stances of each of these groups. A perfect
example: Speaking before the New Hampshire
chapter of the National Education Association
last week, John Kerry waffled on his vote
for the No Child Left Behind Act, which
the teacher lobby hates. He can’t pander to
the group by bashing the bill because he voted
for it. So he criticizes Bush for not fully
funding it. Joe Lieberman has supported
free trade for years, so he can’t suddenly
come out against NAFTA. So, to win union votes
he has taken to supporting a watered-down
version of protectionism while defending free
trade as an ideal. With so many competing
constituencies making up the Democratic Party,
it’s little wonder that no candidate can
emerge from the primary with a coherent,
intellectually consistent agenda.”
… Illinois Guv says
he’s more likely to recall names of Sosa,
Prior, Alou and the other Chicago Cubs than
being able to remember the Dem wannabes.
Under the subhead “Obscure lineup,”
Greg Pierce reported in his “Inside Politics”
column in yesterday’s Washington Times that
Blagojevich isn’t paying much attention to the
wannabes. Excerpt: “Don’t
look for the name of Illinois Gov. Rod R.
Blagojevich on any shortlist of potential
Democratic vice presidential candidates,
the Associated Press reports. Mr. Blagojevich
skipped the AFL-CIO presidential forum in
Chicago on Tuesday, choosing to spend time
with his family and go running. He also said
he had not given much thought to which
candidate he would endorse, if he endorses
any. ‘How many candidates are there? Nine,
10? I could probably name them if you forced
me to, but I could probably give you the Cubs'
starting line up a lot easier,’ Mr.
Blagojevich said.
… So far in this
week’s media battle: California chaos 91, Dem
wannabe forum in Philly 3. The Dem hopefuls
carry on as if – in the wake of Arnold vs. the
world – anybody cares, outside of reporters
paid to attend. Edwards, Graham miss forum
due to prior commitments. Headline from this
morning’s The Union Leader: “Democrats
debate how much to raise taxes” Excerpt
from coverage – in Philadelphia – of Dem forum
last night by AP’s Nedra Pickler: “The
Democratic presidential hopefuls sparred over
how to deal with President Bush's tax cuts
Monday night, one of the stickiest issues
facing the candidates in next year's election.
All nine candidates want to eliminate at
least some of Bush's cuts. But two
philosophies have emerged: One camp says
all the cuts should be repealed to pay for
health care and other programs; the other side
says such a broad tax increase would be bad
for Democrats. ‘I think it's bad
economics,’ Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry
told a town hall meeting of union workers. ‘I
think it's bad social policy and I think it's
bad politics.’ Kerry, Connecticut Sen. Joe
Lieberman, Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich and
former Illinois Sen. Carol Moseley Braun said
they would target any tax increases to the
wealthy. They say they would keep tax cuts
that are helping the middle class, such as the
child tax credit and relief for married
couples. Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt,
former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and activist
Al Sharpton said the first step to repairing
the economy would be to repeal Bush's tax
cuts. Gephardt argued that Bush's
tax cuts are not helping the middle class or
creating jobs. He said the cuts are like
‘handing out candy.’ …’This is a joke,’ he
said. ‘This is like buying votes.’
Gephardt wants to use the money to pay for
health care for nearly all Americans, but
Lieberman said Gephardt's plan is
too big and expensive to pass Congress.
Lieberman said it's vital that Democrats
focus on fiscal responsibility or risk being
stuck ‘in the political wilderness.’
Sharpton responded, ‘Before you can deal
with the wilderness, Mr. Senator, you have to
deal with the burning Bush.’ The economy may
not provide much good news for workers, but
despite their differences it has given the
Democratic candidates an issue with which to
challenge Bush. ‘If you want to trust your
hard-earned money to the federal government,
you better elect a Democrat because the
Republicans just can't handle money,’ Dean
told more than 3,000 rowdy supporters gathered
at Visitor Center Park before the
candidate forum. The crowd stuck around
even though a delayed flight made Dean more
than an hour and a half late. He told them
it was the largest group that has come out in
support of his campaign yet. Seven of the nine
Democratic presidential candidates came to
Philadelphia to appear at the town hall
meeting sponsored by Democratic Gov. Ed
Rendell and the Sheet Metal Workers'
International Association, a union
representing 150,000 workers in the United
States and Canada…Two candidates missed the
Sheet Metal Workers forum. Florida Sen. Bob
Graham was campaigning in Iowa, while North
Carolina Sen. John Edwards was taking a day
off before a bus trip through Iowa and New
Hampshire later this month. “
… Edwards,
striving to improve on second place showing in
latest SC poll, goes with standard
Bush-honors-wealth theme during weekend
appearances. Headline from yesterday’s
Charleston Post and Courier: “Edwards
describes Bush as out of touch” Excerpt
from report by Michael Gartland: “In a
four-stop tour of the Lowcountry, Democratic
presidential contender Sen. John Edwards
argued Saturday for health care reform and
cast President Bush as out of touch with
Americans' core values. ‘The
pharmaceutical industry has an absolute
stranglehold on Washington,’ Edwards
said before an audience of about 40 at the
Master Chef restaurant in North Charleston.
‘There are more lobbyists for these industries
than live in my hometown.’ The problem, he
said, has worsened under Bush's leadership.
Edwards, a native South Carolinian who is a
U.S. senator from North Carolina, accused Bush
of pandering to corporate interests and
ignoring the needs of ordinary workers.
‘In the world he comes from, wealth is
inherited, not earned,’ said Edwards to the
mostly black audience. ‘He honors and
respects one thing: wealth. And he wants to
make sure that whoever has it, keeps it.’ His
tour, which also included stops at St. Helena
Island, Walterboro, and Summerville, came six
months before South Carolina's Democratic
presidential primary next February, the first
primary in the South. Edwards also focused
his attack on Bush's tax cuts, which he
described as more beneficial to the rich than
to anyone else. He later emphasized that he
would support tax cuts that would benefit
working people. ‘He wants to get rid of the
dividends tax. He wants to get rid of the
estate tax,’ said Edwards, 50. ‘I take
this very personally.’”
… “Folks got to beg you
to vote when others died to give you the right
to vote.” – comment by Sharpton
during South Carolina church appearance.
Headline from yesterday’s Greenville News – “Al
Sharpton urges youth, blacks to vote”
Excerpt from report datelined Santee: “The
electric organ pumped music into the sanctuary
and a chorus of voices echoed the Rev. Al
Sharpton as he reminded the congregation at
Chapel Hill Baptist Church on Sunday about the
struggle for civil rights and the important
role for blacks in selecting the next
president of the United States. ‘Here you
are 40 years later in South Carolina. Nobody
bombing your churches, no dogs biting you,
nobody shooting you in the driveway, just
too lazy and ungrateful to use something that
folks died to give you the right to,’ said
Sharpton, one of nine Democrats vying
for the White House. ‘Folks got to beg you to
vote when others died to give you the right to
vote.’ The visit was part of Sharpton's
campaign for the state's first-in-the-South
primary Feb. 3. The vote is expected to be
Democrats' first test with a large black
population. Sharpton told the
congregation that President Bush is ‘bent on
phenomenal destruction’ in Iraq when the
billions of dollars in resources should be
used back in America. ‘Bush is there as a
result of us going to sleep,’ he said.
Hand-held fans pushed air across faces looking
up at the gray-haired preacher, who broke into
song as he told his story of growing up with a
single mother on welfare in Brooklyn, N.Y.,
and how he successfully rose above the
obstacles that many black people of his
generation faced. ‘Some of what we're facing
is because we're not doing enough,’ he said. ‘We've
allowed this generation to be fooled into
believing that we don't have to try and excel
and stand for something.’ Sharpton
encouraged the congregation to look to its
young people to help lead the way in the
political process. ‘When I think of how our
grandparents suffered and died to give us
rights ... the hope they had was if we pay the
price, that our children can then use the door
that's open to finish the journey,’ he said.
‘But many of us are sort of cracking the door,
and slip through for us rather than continue
the journey for everybody.’ Shannon Graham,
20, said she likes what Sharpton stands
for, but she needs to see all the candidates
face to face to help her decide who will get
her vote. ‘So I wouldn't feel like they're too
high and mighty to be interested in the
people,’ she said. ‘There's no candidate in
this race that can go on the highways and
byways of this state and try and encourage new
voters like I can,’ Sharpton said
later in an interview with The Associated
Press. ‘The more people involved in the
process, the better it is for the country.’
Even though he lags behind his opponents in
fund-raising, Sharpton says he's in the
race until the end because he draws attention
to the needs of minorities. ‘You act like
I'm the only one who might lose. Eight folks
are going to lose,’ he told the congregation.
‘The question is not who's going to lose. The
question is who gives you the best shot at
empowering yourself.’ Sharpton said his
efforts to register voters can help states win
House and Senate seats to help change the
pulse of the country. ‘When you shoot high you
get everything else in between,’ he said.
‘When you shoot low you ain't going to get
nothing because you weren't after nothing.’”
… Best of Web’s
James Taranto notes that Dean has never
written a “Conscience of a Liberal” book --
and adds “Dean's foreign policy seems to
consist entirely of denouncing the president
for liberating Iraq.” Under the subhead
“AuH2Oward Dean?,” Taranto wrote in
yesterday’s column on OpinionJournal.com: “A
favorite pastime of political commentators in
this pre-presidential-election season is to
come up with historical analogies to
explain the Howard Dean phenomenon. In the
end, of course, we will all conclude that Dean
was sui generis--or, if he loses the
nomination, that he wasn't important anyway.
Still, analogizing is a fun intellectual
exercise, so let's indulge a bit. The most
obvious analogy is to George McGovern, the
antiwar 1972 Democratic nominee. Al Hunt
suggests Jimmy Carter (‘outsider’ governor,
who by the way won the election)…Then there's
Barry Goldwater, the conservative Republican
LBJ crushed in 1964. A Wall Street Journal
editorial in June alluded to Goldwater when it
noted that Democrats may ‘next year decide
they want a choice, and not an echo.’…Let us
suggest one problem with this analogy, as well
as one additional reason why it may be
pertinent. The problem is that unlike
Goldwater, it's hard to say that Dean has any
coherent philosophy of government. There's no
‘Conscience of a Liberal’ by Howard Dean;
indeed, Dean insists he's actually a
‘centrist’--an epithet it's hard to imagine
Goldwater applying to himself. But here's the
similarity: Dean, like Goldwater, has no
answer for the greatest issue of the day.
In Goldwater's case it was civil rights; and
although he was no segregationist himself, his
opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964
made him the de facto segregationist
candidate. Along with his home state of
Arizona, he won five other states, all in the
Deep South—‘the wrong ones for the wrong
reason,’ as The Wall Street Journal's Vermont
Royster observed in a postelection column.
Similarly, Dean (and to a lesser extent all of
his Democratic opponents, with the possible
exception of Joe Lieberman) has no strategy
for dealing with the great issue of our day,
the battle against Islamist terrorism.
Dean's foreign policy seems to consist
entirely of denouncing the president for
liberating Iraq. Though he grudgingly concedes
that the world is better off without Saddam
Hussein in power, what really seems to spark
his passion is the various procedural
objections to a ‘unilateral’ or ‘pre-emptive’
war. Goldwater was in many ways a man ahead of
his time; certainly he helped lay the
groundwork for the GOP's revitalization as a
conservative party. On the other hand, it
seems fair to say he had an ideological blind
spot in that he failed to grasp that the
enormity of segregation was such that it
justified an exercise of federal power that
would otherwise have been an anathema.
Similarly for Dean, who views the liberation
of 24 million Iraqis as a trivial matter in
comparison to the lack of an 18th U.N.
resolution.”
… Lieberman
continues trying to catch any straw in the
wind – after hitting Dean and other rivals for
the past few days he goes on attack against
Bush. If this keeps up, questions will surface
about whether Lieberman is competent enough to
serve balance of Senate term. Headline
from yesterday’s Union Leader – “Lieberman
rips Bush, says country needs new leadership”
Excerpt from Manchester report by the UL’s
Benjamin Keeple: “U. S. Sen. Joseph
Lieberman, D-Conn., one of nine Democrats
vying for that party’s Presidential
nomination, told supporters yesterday that the
nation needs new leadership as it faces
challenging times. Lieberman’s
remarks came as he attended a house party on
the city’s West Side. While criticizing
incumbent President George W. Bush for his
administration’s policies, Lieberman
also played up his own experience and
character as reasons to support his candidacy.
‘I am convinced my experience, my record
and my plans will enable me and you to deliver
on these dreams and make America’s future
better than its past,’ Lieberman
said. Lieberman said he imagined an
America that was genuinely secure from
threats, where the federal budget was again in
balance, where jobs were created as opposed to
lost, and people would not lose out on access
to higher education because they didn’t have
the resources to pay for it. But Lieberman
also attacked the Bush administration for its
positions on taxes, its handling of the
economy and on the situation in post-war Iraq.
Lieberman said he felt the war on Iraq
made the world a safer place, but said he was
amazed at the administration’s ‘stunning lack
of preparation regarding a post-war Iraq.
‘When it comes to diplomacy, planning and
preparation, they don’t get passing marks with
me,’ Lieberman said. Lieberman charged
that Bush’s tax cuts didn’t work and were
unfair, but said he was not opposed to tax
cuts targeted toward businesses and the middle
class. He also attacked Bush on the
environment, calling him the ‘worst
environmental President in the history of
America.’ Republicans fired back that
Lieberman had flip-flopped on his policy
positions. They also took issue with his
criticism of Bush’s tax-cut measures. ‘Tax
increases and repealing all or part of the
Bush tax cut doesn’t create one job,’ said
Julie Teer, a spokeswoman for the state
Republican Party. ‘”
… Boston Globe
report: Dean stands out among the wannabes
because of “the intensity of his Internet
operation.” Globe reporter Joanna Weiss
ventures to the heart of the Dean
operation – Burlington, VT – to report the
campaign’s success, which features some
interesting campaign staff positions such as
“head blogger” and “head of Internet outreach.”
An excerpt: “Of all the technological tools
they have used to draw people to Howard
Dean's presidential campaign, staffers
never expected to get so much buzz from a
baseball bat. As cyber things go, it's not
especially high-tech: a picture of a bat,
posted on Dean's website,
www.deanforamerica.com during the June
fund-raising drive. Supporters who
reloaded the campaign website every half-hour
could watch the donations grow, like mercury
rising in a thermometer. When it was first
proposed, some staff members thought it was,
frankly, a little cheesy. But ever since the
June drive ended, die-hard supporters have
posted pleas on Dean's campaign ‘weblog,’
begging the staff to ‘bring back the bat.’
Soon enough, it returned, as a cheerleading
tool for one of the campaign's more audacious
ideas: last month's ‘Cheney Challenge,’ in
which the campaign famously earned nearly
$500,000, surpassing the $300,000 Vice
President Dick Cheney took in at a South
Carolina fund-raiser. It's a small sign of
the how the online masses have managed to
steer Dean headquarters in Burlington.
Dean has stood out among his rival
candidates because of the intensity of his
Internet operation; online donations drove his
unexpected fund-raising performance in this
year's second quarter, when he bested
Democratic rivals to raise $7.5 million. In
recent months, his campaign has staffed some
Internet-related positions that wouldn't have
existed in the 2000 race: “head blogger,”
“national meetup coordinator,” “head of
Internet outreach.” And some of the ideas
that have most defined Dean's online
operations -- and some of the computer
programming behind them -- have come not from
hired hands, but from volunteers. ‘It was
really driven from the grass-roots side,’ said
John A. Miller, 34, a New York volunteer and
electrical engineer. ‘People with technical
skills, they were impressed by his message and
his delivery and just started doing what they
knew how to do, which was technical stuff.’ So
Miller and other New York volunteers helped
the campaign develop a tool that helped
supporters organize their own events without
direction from headquarters. Another renegade
crew of programmers set up hack4dean.org,
dedicated to helping people set up their own
pro-Dean websites. Someone else set up a
site that turns Dean icons into iron-on
T-shirt decals. To be sure, the Dean
campaign has made use of some
already-developed grass-roots tools and paid
its share of Internet consultants -- including
a key player in MoveOn.org, a Democratic
political action committee that has organized
people in opposition to the impeachment of
President Clinton and the war in Iraq. In
June, MoveOn.org held an online primary, which
Dean won with 44 percent. But Dean's
‘Internetization’ has just as often been an
unplanned, unruly process for a campaign that
didn't start out with a technical agenda, or
even a technically-savvy candidate. (In 2001,
the Rutland (Vt.) Herald reported that,
according to Dean's lawyer, the governor
didn't use a computer in his office or have a
state e-mail account.) Now, as Dean
has proved that riding the Internet wave can
be effective, rival campaigns are
scrambling to catch up. And political
consultants are struggling to define exactly
why Dean has become the Internet
candidate, whether that support can extend
beyond a wired core, and if others can
reproduce his early success.”
…”Hopefuls
turn on charm in key state…New Hampshire
Democrats wooed” – Headline from yesterday’s
Chicago Tribune. Excerpt from report –
datelined Manchester – by the Tribune’s Jill
Zuckman: “Representatives of the major
Democratic presidential candidates packed the
Athens Restaurant the other night to help
state Sen. Lou D'Allesandro, a burly former
football player and coach, celebrate his 65th
birthday with a fundraiser. ‘Lou, if you're
looking for a team to coach--one with heart,
soul and dedication to the cause--Team
Lieberman is ready to suit up!’ Sen.
Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) wrote in a
birthday letter that was read aloud.
D'Allesandro is an influential Democrat who
has not decided whom to support for president,
and over roasted chicken, grape leaves and
Kalamata olives--a meal the presidential
campaigns helped pay for--D'Allesandro was
feted as if his vote would be the decisive one
on New Hampshire primary day, Jan. 27. In New
Hampshire--like Iowa, the other key early
voting state--campaigns for president are
one-on-one affairs. Candidates spend
months, even years, courting political
activists whose endorsements and support may
induce others to come aboard, creating vital
momentum. Although January is months away, the
frenzied courtship already is well under way.
Besides lending their names, the activists
often serve as stand-ins for the candidates,
touting them to friends and colleagues and
writing letters to undecided voters. It's
the political equivalent of the Faberge
shampoo commercial in which a person tells two
friends about the product, those people tell
two more and so on. ‘The candidates call
and ask how I'm doing--as if my health were a
real concern,’ said a joking D'Allesandro, who
has squired Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.),
Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) and
Lieberman's wife, Hadassah, around town.
He has held parties at his house for
Gephardt and Edwards' wife,
Elizabeth, and he has met privately with Sen.
Bob Graham (D-Fla.), former Sen. Carol
Moseley Braun of Illinois and
Lieberman. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and his
wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, have invited
D'Allesandro and his wife to dinner, but they
haven't had time to go. The wooing of the
activists takes many forms. Before he had made
up his mind to back Lieberman, state
Rep. Raymond Buckley's phone was ringing off
the hook. `Calling, calling, calling'…’I knew
if I didn't make a choice early on, they were
all going to drive me crazy,’ Buckley said.
‘They kept calling, calling, calling. I
stopped answering 202 calls on my cell phone
because it was always a presidential
candidate.’ Washington, D.C.'s area code is
202. When former Vice President Al Gore
took himself out of the race, Buckley agreed
to back Lieberman, who has put Buckley
on the campaign payroll as eastern regional
director. In another example, Gephardt sent
flowers to a baby shower for Concord attorney
Chris Sullivan and his wife, Kristin.
After the Sullivans' son Jake was born last
October, Edwards sent flowers. The
Sullivans illustrate what such activists can
do for a candidate. In 2000, they supported
former Sen. Bill Bradley (D-N.J.) over Gore.
They ‘adopted’ Richmond, N.H., sending a
postcard to every Democrat in the small
town--and Richmond went for Bradley, 61 votes
to 45. To woo such dedicated activists,
Kerry and Edwards have held intimate dinner
parties in their homes, bringing key New
Hampshire players to Massachusetts and
Washington. When in Manchester, Edwards
has regularly invited small groups to join him
at Baldwin's, a fancy downtown restaurant.”
… “He May Not Be Tops
With Party Brass, but Dean’s the One to Watch”
– Headline on Ron Brownstein’s “Washington
Outlook” column in yesterday’s Los Angeles
Times. An excerpt: “Topic A for the
politically sophisticated local businesspeople
who lingered after Missouri Rep. Richard A.
Gephardt's speech to the Greenwich Village
Chamber of Commerce last week was the race for
the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination.
But the name on most lips in the room
wasn't Gephardt's; it was that of former
Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who has caught the
imagination of activists here, as everywhere,
with his stinging denunciations of President
Bush and the Democratic leaders Dean says the
president has intimidated. Mr. Dean,
as they say in Hollywood, is ready for his
close-up. The Bruce Springsteen treatment he
received from the national news magazines last
week (simultaneous covers of Time and
Newsweek) confirms the verdict suggested first
by his breakthrough at using the Internet to
raise money and support and then by the
recent polls showing him narrowly leading
local favorites Gephardt in Iowa and
Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry in New
Hampshire. Starting from obscurity,
Dean has become the central figure in the
2004 Democratic race. Whether he's the
front-runner in a conventional sense is
another question; although surging in money
and at the polls, Dean lacks the support
from party leaders and institutions that
usually marks a front-runner. But he's
clearly emerged as the race's pacesetter and
driving force. More than anyone else, he's
forcing the other candidates to react to his
actions…Yet Dean is as much target as
model. Kerry recently attacked him
from the left, complaining that Dean's
call for repealing all of Bush's 2001 tax cut
(which Dean wants to apply to a new
drive to cover those without health insurance)
would raise taxes on the middle class as well
as the rich. Sen. Joe Lieberman of
Connecticut, desperately seeking a foothold in
the race, last week attacked Dean from the
other direction, portraying his rival as
too liberal to win a general election…Lieberman's
speech jabbed at Dean's weakest point: The
fear that Dean could lead the party off
a cliff in the general election may be the
biggest hurdle he faces in the primary.
Privately, much of the Democratic
establishment — elected officials,
strategists, leaders of the most powerful
interest groups — share Lieberman's
conclusion. And as long as they do, it
will be tough for Dean to attract much of the
institutional support critical to surviving
the tightly compressed primary calendar.
Eventually, the anxiety among insiders might
also spill over to average Democratic voters.
So, in the weeks ahead, the top priority
facing Dean could be convincing the
party leadership that he's not a sure loser
against Bush. The terms of the argument
between Dean and his critics are
already emerging…Dean's supporters believe
his critics are trapped in static thinking
that ignores his potential to reshape the
electorate. His backers are optimistic
that he will encourage a huge turnout among
core Democratic voters and appeal to swing
voters less on ideological than stylistic
grounds — as a straight-shooter like Sen. John
McCain (R-Ariz.). In effect, as CNN analyst
Bill Schneider has observed, the debate comes
down to whether Dean is more like McCain or
George McGovern, the liberal antiwar senator
who suffered a landslide defeat against
Richard Nixon in 1972. Who's right? One
early clue may be in whether Dean can
broaden his support in the primaries beyond
the well-educated, socially liberal,
relatively upscale voters who usually sustain
insurgencies like his. If Dean can't
win blue-collar and culturally conservative
voters who still consider themselves
Democrats, he's unlikely to convert their
independent or Republican-leaning neighbors in
a general election. Dean will likely need
to make inroads with downscale and morally
traditional voters just to capture the
nomination. But he'll definitely need strength
beyond the National Public Radio set to avoid
a McGovern-like blowout if he wins the chance
to challenge Bush.”
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