Out of spotlight, Dodd runs on hope
NASHUA -- Senator Christopher J. Dodd had a small group of New Hampshire voters enthralled as he discussed -- of all things -- a carbon tax on businesses to discourage them from polluting.
"Price is the last real barrier" to forcing businesses to install cleaner technologies, Dodd told the dozen or so people at one of his "kitchen table" campaign events at a home in this southern New Hampshire city last week. He detailed his plan to raise $50 billion a year for alternative-energy research by imposing a fee on polluters. The Connecticut Democrat then led the Granite State voters into an extensive conversation about solar energy, fuel economy standards, and tax breaks to help consumers buy hybrid vehicles.
It is one of the more audacious proposals made by a presidential candidate this year, but Dodd's plan barely provoked a murmur from either his Democratic primary opponents or the energy industry, which strenuously opposes emissions taxes.
Dodd is struggling to be heard in a primary race dominated by Senators Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois. Only former senator John Edwards of North Carolina has managed to match Clinton and Obama in headlines on occasion -- even though the Democratic field includes one senator in addition to Dodd, a former senator, a highly popular governor with a golden résumé, and a well-known representative who's a darling of the far-left.
After a visit last week to a fire station in Nashua, Dodd was met with silence when he asked whether any of the firefighters had questions for him. "It's a chance to pick on the senator," he said, egging them on, but still elicited no response.
Dodd, while clearly frustrated by the lack of media attention to his long-shot campaign, said in an interview that the initial fascination with two or three leading candidates is "not uncommon," and insisted he will attract support and ultimately votes by running an old-fashioned, grass-roots campaign.
"I think the door is very much open," said Dodd, whose $8.8 million in first-quarter fund-raising was dwarfed by Obama and Clinton, who raised nearly three times as much. "I don't think the race has been decided based on early polling data having more to do with celebrity name recognition and finances" than voter appeal.
"I've been through five elections in the Senate -- I know how to win races," Dodd said.
Still, presidential politics is often unkind to politicians like Dodd who have dominated their states for so long that they may have grown rusty from lack of opposition.
Once the prince of Connecticut politics, serving three terms in the US House before being elected in 1980, at the age of 36, to the first of five Senate terms, Dodd is now a silver-haired 62, with a grand, senatorial manner similar to his colleagues John F. Kerry and Joseph R. Biden Jr..
The son of the late Thomas Dodd -- a former US senator himself and a lead prosecutor at the post-World War II Nuremberg trials -- Christopher Dodd served in the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic in the late 1960s, becoming fluent in Spanish and perhaps leading to his role today as one of Congress's leading voices on Latin America policy.
Dodd is also the chairman of the powerful banking committee, and has racked up a long list of legislative accomplishments, including the Family and Medical Leave Act, expansion of Head Start, and aid to local fire departments.
But Dodd insists he is not running on his legislative laundry list, though he frequently cites his "experience" to draw a contrast with Clinton and Obama. For Dodd, 2008 presents a do-or-die moment for a nation burdened by wars on two fronts, dependence on foreign oil, and global warming.
"You could stay around and offer an amendment here and there -- and I don't minimize the importance of that," Dodd said, referring to the Senate. "But real change comes out of the Oval Office." Dodd said that he would not accept a vice presidential nomination and that he is very serious in his climb for the presidency.
"I'm 62. This is not a warm-up for a future campaign," he said.
Dodd often associates his interest in the presidency with his late-blooming parenthood -- calling himself the only candidate who hears from both the AARP and diaper services.
His marriage to Jackie Clegg in 1999 represented a big change for a man who was once widely regarded as an inveterate partier along with his onetime bar-hopping pal, Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts. Both were in the midst of long second bachelorhoods after divorcing their first wives.
These days, Dodd loves to tell stories about his little girls. Five-year-old Grace one day asked her father at the breakfast table, "Daddy, what kind of day will I have?" Dodd recalled. When he answered, she followed up, "Daddy, what kind of life will I have?"
Dodd said he thinks about that question often as he ponders the kind of world his generation will leave to Grace and 2-year-old Christina.
"I used to be teased a bit as the guy who didn't have any children," Dodd said of his younger years. Now, he said, he looks at his daughters and thinks: "How are they going to be able to afford a house? What sort of jobs will be available? Will the world be a safe place for them? All of those factors go together in the decision to get involved."
Ken Dautrich , a public policy professor at the University of Connecticut, said, "Clearly, there's been a transformation of Chris Dodd over the last 20 years," with the senator emerging as a more serious policy maker, cosponsoring major domestic legislation, and becoming an important Democratic player in Latin America policy.
Even so, the presidential journey for Dodd is daunting, especially with the unprecedented fund-raising pressure brought on by the move by many states to push their primaries up to early February. Trailing badly in early polls, Dodd must persuade a Democratic electorate eager to nominate a winner that voters should hear him out.
"I think the tough thing is that if you're looking for somebody new, he's not your guy. If you're looking for a front-runner, he's not your guy. There has to be a reason to pull him out of the pack," said Peter Fenn , a Democratic consultant.
Dodd maintains that he can win over voters by running an old-fashioned retail campaign in early primary states, giving him momentum into Super Tuesday.
"People want to see you," he said. "They want to hear you. They also want you to listen to them. That's the kind of campaign we're running." 