More money making dumb ads dumber
EDITORIAL: Dayton (Ohio) Daily News
Friday, December 26, 2003 (excerpt)

A Democratic group that is trying to derail Howard Dean has run ads that are so over-the-top that unions that had put up the money complained and considered asking for their money back. [Complete Article].

 

Dean to 'storm' Council Bluffs, Iowa
Tim Rohwer, Daily Nonpareil - 12/27/2003 (excerpts)

There's a storm brewing in Council Bluffs. And, that's something the city should be proud of, according to a spokesperson for Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean. "Council Bluffs is a very important area in the state," said Sarah Leonard, Dean's Iowa communications director. "In the last weeks before the Iowa caucuses, we will focus on 12 communities and their surrounding areas, and one of them is Council Bluffs."

This weekend, Council Bluffs is just one of their Iowa cities - Des Moines and Davenport are the other two - in which dozens of Dean supporters are visiting to get his message out, Leonard said. [Complete Article]

 

MeetUps expand campaign participation
By Bret Hayworth, Sioux City Journal - December 27, 2003 (excerpts)

[T]here is something groundbreaking about MeetUps, as undertaken by Dean. They have drawn the typically apathetic youth demographic into the political process and MeetUps have been a great boon to Dean, having drawn more than 145,000 members in 500 cities nationally. That number was 50,000 in July.

"Nearly 2,000 Iowans have joined our campaign through MeetUps and hundreds of them have never attended a caucus," Jeani Murray, Dean's Iowa campaign manager said. "It has been a great addition to our traditional methods of meeting caucus attendees ... We have led the way showing the political world the power of the Internet to mobilize a movement for change." [Complete Article].

 

Internet will play role in caucuses
Michigan Democrats to use Web in vote by William Hershey
Dayton (Ohio) Daily News - December 27, 2003 (excerpts)

Participants will have three options - show up in person Feb. 7 at a caucus site, or vote by mail or over the Internet. Although mail and Internet votes may be cast earlier, they won't be counted until Feb. 7, said [executive chair of the Michigan Democratic Party Mark] Brewer. He said he expects turnout to be divided about evenly among the three methods.

Michigan pollster Ed Sarpolus said Internet voting could give an advantage to former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who has surged to the front of the Democratic pack partly by aggressive Internet-based organizing.

An October poll conducted by Sarpolus' firm, EPIC-MRA, showed Dean leading in Michigan among likely Democratic caucus voters with 21 percent support, followed by retired Gen. Wesley Clark with 15 percent and U.S. Rep. Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., and U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., with 13 percent each.

The survey showed Dean getting 25 percent of his support from voters who said they likely would use the Internet. No other candidate got more than 14 percent of their support from such voters. [Complete Article]

 

The Stop-Dean Frenzy
Howard Dean Emerging As Democratic Favorite
By Jules Witcover, December 27, 2003 (excerpts)

[W]ith the aggressive front-loading of the primary/caucus calendar for 2004, nine states and the District of Columbia will vote in the three weeks between Jan. 13 (in D.C.) and Feb. 3, and another 25 by March 2. In that time, well more than half of all Democratic national convention delegates will have been chosen, with the likelihood the nominee will be known.

Dean could stumble, especially as the schedule heads South and West on Feb. 3 (including South Carolina, Oklahoma, Arizona and New Mexico). But with a growing army of first-time volunteers and voters, and a campaign treasury fattened via the Internet that will enable him to run everywhere, his rivals are already in a frenetic stop-Dean mode. [Complete Article]

 

Bush 2004 Campaign: Attack Dean
Bush advisers plan 2004 run with eye on discrediting Dean
By Adam Nagourney and Richard W. Stevenson
NEW YORK TIMES: Fri, Dec. 26, 2003

President Bush's campaign has settled on a plan to run against Howard Dean that would portray Dean as reckless, angry and pessimistic, while framing the 2004 election as a referendum on the direction of the nation more than on the president himself, Bush's aides say.

Some advisers to Bush, increasingly convinced that Dean will become their opponent next fall, are pushing to begin a drive to undercut him even before a Democratic nominee becomes clear. But others said the more likely plan would be to hold back until after the Democratic contest had effectively ended, probably no later than March. As a Bush strategist put it, Dean's rivals are 'doing a great job for us' with their increasingly tough attacks on him. [Complete Article].

 

Kerry's Quagmire
By Ruben Navarrette, Washington Post - December 26, 2003; Page A35 (excerpts)

In a Newsweek survey of registered Democrats and other voters leaning Democratic, Kerry got 6 percent. Sharpton got 7 percent. Not that it matters. Former Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont leads the field with 26 percent. [Complete Article].

 

Opponents Attack Front-Runner Dean
Dean, Under Attack, Revives Feisty Style by JODI WILGOREN
New York Times - December 25, 2003 (excerpts)

SEABROOK, N.H., Dec. 23 - Swatting away attacks from all corners in the 10 days since the capture of Saddam Hussein, Howard Dean has returned to the combative posture that propelled his insurgent candidacy to the front of the field this fall. Denunciations of "Washington Democrats" once again dominate his speeches, even as he complains that negativity has taken over the primary campaign.

It is a clear contrast from just two weeks ago when Dr. Dean, buoyed by the backing of several major unions, former Vice President Al Gore and a swelling crowd of elected officials, was beginning to change his style. Smiling more than finger-thrusting, he fancied himself a frontrunner above the fray, experimenting - briefly - with a more moderate tone, as he kept one eye on the general electorate. But the relentless battering has stymied his effort to look long range, forcing him to hunker down in the final month before the first votes.

"Ultimately, if I'm going to be the nominee, I have to broaden the message," Dr. Dean, the former governor of Vermont, said recently in an interview as his van shuttled between town-hall-style meetings on the snowy streets of New Hampshire. "I know that, and I was starting to do it. But you can't do it if every day you know Joe Lieberman is calling you incompetent and John Kerry is whining about something else. [Complete Article]

 

Dean's Cheer in N.H. Extends Beyond Holidays
Jonathan Finer - Washington Post - December 24, 2003 (excerpts)

SEABROOK, N.H., Dec. 23 -- On his last day of campaigning before a holiday hiatus, Howard Dean was in no mood to stir up trouble. Asked Tuesday after touring an auto-parts factory about his remark the day before that the centrist Democratic Leadership Council represents "the Republican wing of the Democratic Party," the former Vermont governor did not back away from it. But he dismissed any attempt to draw him into another critique of fellow Democrats with a rhetorical "Merry Christmas, everybody. Who wants to say anything mean on a day like today?"

His response showed more than just the ordinary holiday cheer -- with most campaign activities on hold until Friday, Dean will enter the month before this state's Jan. 27 primary with a comfortable advantage. He leads all rivals here by at least 25 percentage points in polls. Over three busy days of stump speeches, Dean fended off the latest barrage of criticism from his rivals, while drawing large crowds to each of six town meetings.

"I wonder what the fire marshal's going to say about this," Dean said as he stepped to the podium at the Unitarian Universalist Church in tiny Franklin, N.H., Monday night. He saw more than 300 people packing the pews, standing in the aisles and wedged into window sills to hear him.

"We can't do house parties any more," said Dean's New Hampshire press secretary, Matthew Gardner. "They started spilling out into the lawn, and that doesn't work in December." [Complete Article]

 

Polls: Dean Holds Lead in Ariz., Okla.
AP Report: December 24, 2003 (excerpts)

Howard Dean is leading in the Democratic presidential contest in Arizona and is competing with Wesley Clark for the top spot in Oklahoma, according to polls released Wednesday.

Both Arizona and Oklahoma are among the seven states that hold Democratic presidential contests on Feb. 3.

The polls by the American Research Group of Manchester, N.H., found Dean at 26 percent and Clark at 15 percent in Arizona with all others in single digits. In Oklahoma, Dean was at 24 percent, Clark at 21 percent and others in single digits. More than a third of voters were undecided in each of the two states.

Joe Lieberman, who is placing a lot of emphasis on the Feb. 3 contests, was at 9 percent in both state polls. In Arizona, Dick Gephardt had the backing of 7 percent, John Kerry had the backing of 6 percent, John Edwards and Dennis Kucinich had 1 percent each, and Carol Moseley Braun and Al Sharpton had the support of less than 1 percent.

In Oklahoma, Gephardt had the backing of 4 percent, Edwards had the backing of 3 percent, Kerry of 2 percent, and Braun, Kucinich and Sharpton had 1 percent each. The high number of undecided voters in each state suggests voters are likely to be influenced by the outcome of earlier contests in Iowa and New Hampshire. [Complete Article].

 

Insiders keep dismissing Dean. Is It Time to Believe?
"Bill Clinton rebuilt the Democratic Party in crucial ways. But Howard Dean is rebuilding it in a way Clinton missed. Party insiders would do well to make their peace with it." Now, "Is It Time to Believe?" asks Michael Tomasky in The American Prospect, dated 1/1/04 (excerpts).

Howard Dean was prematurely and mistakenly written off. In phase one he was too abrasive; in phase two he'd hired second-raters; in phase three he couldn't possibly raise big money; and in the last phase he'd peaked too early. The reality, instead, is that he and campaign manager Joe Trippi have run a dazzlingly brilliant and innovative campaign. Dean just seems to get stronger every week, challenging not only the laws of politics but of Isaac Newton himself. Why? [Complete Article.]

 

Dean win in South Carolina could decide nomination
By Dan Hoover GreenvilleOnline.com - December 20, 2003 (excerpts)

South Carolina is poised to become the state where Howard Dean's momentum toward the Democratic nomination is blunted or becomes inevitable. "If Dean can be stopped, it'll happen Feb. 3 - or not at all," said Scott Huffmon, a Winthrop University political scientist, referring to South Carolina and the six other states with primaries that day.

"He's going to come out of Iowa and New Hampshire as the candidate to beat," leaving South Carolina's primary a make-or-break contest, said Bruce Ransom of Clemson University's Strom Thurmond Institute. Most of the nine Democratic candidates predict victories or strong showings in the opening contests, the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 19, the New Hampshire primary on Jan. 27 and South Carolina a week later. The winnowing process will begin before Feb. 3 as candidates fail to meet expectations and watch their money and support dry up.

Don Fowler, the former national Democratic Party chairman from Columbia, said recently on "PBS Newshour" that "after Iowa and New Hampshire, we'll have two or three people still in the race. We'll have a candidate by the end of February, if not before." [Complete Article]

 

Howard Dean is Pulling Away in South Carolina
AP and ABC News 4 Charleston, SC: December 23, 2003 (excerpts)

A new poll shows Howard Dean appears to be gaining strength in the Democratic presidential race in South Carolina. The poll released today by the American Research Group [reports] Dean is at 16 percent, up from nine percent in a Pew Research Center poll last month. Retired Army General Wesley Clark and the Reverend Al Sharpton are at 12 percent. North Carolina Senator John Edwards is at eleven percent. Missouri Representative Dick Gephardt is at seven percent. Former Illinois Senator Carol Moseley Braun is at three percent, Massachusetts Senator John Kerry is at two percent, and Ohio Representative Dennis Kucinich is at one percent. [Complete Article]

 

Dean Expands Lead in Polls