Rivals dispute Dean on race issue claim

Statement labeled 'false, inflammatory'

By Sarah Schweitzer, Globe Staff, 9/11/2003

Democratic candidates running for president yesterday pounced on front-runner Howard Dean's assertion that he was the only one talking about racial issues before white audiences, calling the comments Dean made at a candidate's forum Tuesday night divisive and false.

"Governor Dean is trying to use positioning on race as a means of defining himself against his Democratic colleagues," said Jennifer Palmieri, John Edwards's spokeswoman. "[Race] shouldn't be used as a political football."

Edwards, she said, along with other Democrats, frequently invokes the issue of race on the stump. As recently as the morning of the forum, at a breakfast in Bedford, N.H. before a largely white audience, the North Carolina senator discussed his experience growing up in the segregated South, she said.

Other Democrats joined Edwards yesterday in the criticism, with Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri and Senators Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut and John F. Kerry of Massachusetts also pointing out their discussions of race on the campaign trail before white audiences.

"Howard Dean's statement was false and inflammatory," said Kerry spokeswoman Kelley Benander. "John Kerry has been speaking out bluntly in front of all audiences on issues of race relations and discrimination since he became a public figure more than 30 years ago."

Dean's spokeswoman, Tricia Enright, dismissed the criticism. "This is not about whether any of the other candidates are commited to the issue of civil rights," she said. "What Governor Dean is talking about is not just the need for civil rights. He is out there talking about how when the president uses the word `quota,' it is a race-loaded word designed to instill fear of African-Americans and other minorities."

The attacks on Dean came a day after the nine Democratic presidential candidates appeared at a forum at historically black Morgan State University in Baltimore.

Dean, the former governor of Vermont, has gained momentum in recent weeks with strong showings in polls and fund-raising, but he is perceived as potentially vulnerable on the issue of race because he hails from one of the whitest states in the country.

Yesterday, Enright said Dean previously asserted he was the only candidate talking about racial issues before white audiences and is now being challenged simply because of the campaign's momentum.

"Back in June at the Rainbow/ Push Coalition, [Dean] said the same exact thing and there was no righteous indignation and there was no discussion," Enright said.

The issue of race matters had previously surfaced in the Democratic nomination process. Lieberman, Gephardt, and Representative Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio were criticized by NAACP President Kweisi Mfume when they declined invitiations to appear at the candidates forum at the annual NAACP convention in Miami in July. Dean was among the Democratic nominees who did attend. The three absent candidates later apologized and hastened to the convention.

Yesterday, attempting to upend Dean's contention that they have avoided discussing race before white audiences, Dean's opponents said the matter is a consistent fixture in their stump speeches. A spokeswoman for Gephardt said that he often invokes the name of Dr. Martin Luther King in his speeches and frequently quotes him. A Lieberman spokesman said the senator from Connecticut often discusses his experience marching in Washington for civil rights and fighting in Mississippi for African-Americans' right to vote.

"The only thing novel about Dean's remarks is that he made them," said Jano Cabrera, a Lieberman spokesman. "It is not novel for a politician to talk about race to an audience that is not primarily African-American."