Howard Dean considering bid to chair Democratic Party
Howard Dean considering bid to chair Democratic Party
The roughly 240 members of the D-N-C will elect a new chair early next year. Several names are already being mentioned for the position, including former Clinton aide Harold Ickes; Donna Brazile, who ran Al Gore's presidential campaign, and Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack.
MONTPELIER, Vt. Former Governor Howard Dean is considering a bid to become chairman of the Democratic Party.
Steve Grossman, himself a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, says Dean told him he was considering the run.But Dean, during an appearance in Albany, New York, said he hadn't made up his mind. He says he's received thousands of e-mails urging him to run.Dean's spokeswoman, Laura Gross says it's too early to be speculating about a D-N-C run.The roughly 240 members of the D-N-C will elect a new chair early next year. Several names are already being mentioned for the position, including former Clinton aide Harold Ickes; Donna Brazile, who ran Al Gore's presidential campaign, and Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack.
posted by Ron Chusid at 7:33 PM
4 Comments:
I think I would prefer Howard Dean to Donna Brazile
I agree in prefering Dean over Brazille. Dean's strength is is presenting a clear opposing view to Bush, which is where the Democratic party needs to be. While I saw faults in him as a potential candidate for President leading me to support Kerry over him, these objections do not apply to this position. Of course Vilsack might be of value in extneding the geographical base of the party and hopfully moving Iowa back to the blue side--which I think is likely when we no longer have incumbency and a wartime mentality working against us.
Here's how the LA TImes commented on this:
"One of Kerry's presidential primary foes, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, is reportedly interested in seeking the party chairmanship — a development that could put the party far to the left of where many leaders think it could best sway voters in states that backed Bush."
Actually Dean is not on the far left. He governed as a moderate. Since dropping out of the race he has backed candidates who are socially liberal but fiscally conservative. Having run as someone on the left and leaving this impression, it would be hard for him to run for President, unless he does something which changes this reputation (and I doubt he can succeed at this). However, I do think he can push a Democratic agenda in a party position leaving others to face the voters on the ballot.
More from ABC News--note implications for Dean's Presidential aspirations:
Grossman said it is not too soon for Democrats to focus on their future leadership.
"I strongly urged (Dean) to seek the position," he said. "Howard is a voice of political empowerment and that to me is important, for the Democrats to get their sea legs back as quickly as possible, to get beyond the disappointment of the last week and to believe there is a bright future ahead for the Democratic Party."
Dean has been outspoken since the beginning of his presidential bid in saying that the Democratic Party must establish a separate and unique identity from Republicans.
Grossman said that if Dean were to run for DNC chair, he would need to pledge that he would serve the full four-year term, thus ruling out a presidential bid in 2008.
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