Dean: Dems' 50-state strategy working
BURLINGTON, Vt. --Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean says last week's win by his party's candidate in what had been a strongly Republican Mississippi district shows that his "50-state strategy" of strengthening his party is working.
"I think winning is the proof, and so far we've done that," said Dean, the former Vermont governor and unsuccessful 2004 presidential candidate. "You always get detractors from Washington insiders, that's what they do for a living. But Im interested in winning, and so far we have been, and we hope to finish that off in November."
In special elections so far this year, Democrats also have picked up congressional seats in Louisiana and in the Illinois district that former Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert held for two decades.
Dean's strategy has consisted mainly of beefing up staffing and resources in states that had been considered so strongly Republican that they were difficult for Democrats to contest. Since he took over as national chairman in 2006, the Mississippi state Democratic Party went from one staffer to five, and two of those worked on the campaign that ended last week.
Dean made the comments to the Valley News of West Lebanon, N.H. He also spoke Saturday at New Hampshire Democrats' state party convention, where he hit back at Republican criticism of the foreign policy of Sen. Barack Obama, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination.
"The Republican party is the party of the past, and how dare John McCain and George W. Bush question our ability to run foreign policy. Look what they've done to the foreign policy of the United States of America," Dean said to loud applause from the crowd of delegates estimated at about 1,000 people.
Dean demurred when asked if he thought his party's presidential nominating race between Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton had been decided. "No. I mean, certainly I'd be the last one to say so, because by rule I have to be neutral until we have a nominee. It's only decided when we only have one candidate. Right now we have two candidates."
And he said he thought the party would be able to work out a compromise allowing delegates from Michigan and Florida, which defied party rules in the timing of their primaries, to take part in its convention.
"The bottom line is, I think there will be a compromise. I don't think anybody will be fully satisfied with it, but I do think there will be some representation from Michigan and Florida at the national convention, as there should be," Dean said. 