Poor Howard Dean, first he is the inevitable Democratic nominee until Iowa, Kerry and Dean's infamous yowl. Now Dean's aura of inevitability to lead the Democratic party may have suffered a blow similar to that suffered by his presidential campaign.
Time Magazine reports that the executive committee of state party chairs voted to endorse Donnie Fowler rather than Dean to be the next Democratic Party chair:
Fowler, a South Carolinian who lives in California and is the son of former Democratic National Committee Chairman Don Fowler, headed Al Gore's field operation in the 2000 presidential election. Last year he ran the field operation in Michigan for John Kerry, who won that state by three percentage points.
Former Texas Rep. Martin Frost had been considered the front-runner among the Anybody-But-Dean crowd, which includes a large number of Democratic elected officials. But Dean has been the odds-on favorite, in part because the 478 delegates of the Democratic National Committee who will vote next month on the replacement for current chairman Terry McAuliffe are more liberal than many of the party's most prominent faces. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California and her counterpart in the Senate, Nevada's Harry Reid, are among those working behind the scenes to drum up anti-Dean sentiment, but other party stalwarts like Harold Ickes are backing the former presidential contender whose candidacy dissolved with a misplayed yowl in Iowa.
It will be interesting to see how the Deaniacs respond if their standard-bearer is not chosen for DNC chair. Will they accept the decision of the party bigwigs and be good soldiers (and continue to be digital cash cows for the Party)? Or will they stomp off and join the Greens (or some equivalent act of pique)?
Posted by: Dave Schuler | Monday, January 31, 2005 at 10:49 AM