Democrats praise Dean's much criticized 50-state strategy
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By Scott Shepard Cox News Service - Published: February 5, 2007
WASHINGTON - The Democratic National Committee showcased the party's presidential candidates at its winter meeting here, but the gathering also was a victory lap for Chairman Howard Dean and his much criticized 50-state strategy.
Just months ago, as the 2006 congressional elections were approaching, Dean came under fire from some party officials, who charged that the national party was wasting money in so-called red Republican states instead of pouring resources into blue states that tend to vote Democratic.
And even after the election, in which the Democratic Party reclaimed full control of Congress for the first time since 1994, Dean was blamed for the new Democratic majority not being big enough. Democratic strategist James Carville said Dean's leadership was "Rumsfeldian in its incompetence."
But the 400-member DNC rallied behind Dean on Saturday, the conclusion of its three-day winter meeting, unanimously adopting a resolution crediting the 50-state strategy with ensuring that state parties "have the tools, training and resources needed to win elections up and down the ticket, in all parts of the country."
Dean campaigned for the top post in the party after two presidential campaigns in which the Democratic nominees determined it was impossible to carry more than half the states, most notably, those in the South and the interior West. Dean argued that "if Democrats show up, stand up for what we believe in and work hard and ask every American for their vote, we can win in any part of the country at every level."
The ultimate test of Dean's 50-state strategy will be the 2008 presidential campaign, but the 2006 election produced Democratic gains in areas the party had long ago abandoned, most notably, the state of Kansas, the subject of "What's Wrong With Kansas," a best-selling book by Thomas Frank examining how the Republican Party had built an unnatural alliance between populists and religious conservatives to take control of the Hawkeye State's political establishment.
When Frank wrote his book, in 2004, Kathleen Sebelius was the state's governor and the only Democratic of note in Kansas. No other statewide official was a Democrat. Democrats held a minority of state legislative seats. Only 27 percent of the state's registered voters were Democrats. And the Democrats' presidential nominee, John Kerry, had lost the state to George W. Bush by 25 percentage points.
But now, after the 2006 election, Democrats now hold the governorship, the lieutenant governorship and the office of attorney general. They have picked up seats in the state House and Senate. They installed a moderate majority on the state School Board. And for the first time since 1994, a Democrat represents the 2nd Congressional District, an area that includes most of wheat-growing eastern Kansas.
"Kansas once again is open for business," Sebelius declared in an address to the DNC on Saturday. And for that, part of the credit goes to Dean and his 50-state strategy. "It really is paying off," she said.
Indeed, any criticism of Dean's 50-state strategy has been muted throughout the DNC's winter meeting, and virtually every one of the nine presidential candidates who have addressed the DNC members have praised the DNC chairman for his efforts at re-establishing a Democratic foothold in Republican strongholds.
"Howard Dean was right in rebuilding our party in 50 states," Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, a battleground state in the last two presidential elections, said Saturday.
"Our chair recognized that Democratic values are welcome in all parts of our country," added former Gov. Tom Vilsack of Iowa, another swing state in presidential elections.
Richardson, Vilsack, Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware and former Sen. Mike Gravel of Alaska were the final four Democratic presidential candidates to address the DNC as the gathering wrapped up its winter meeting Saturday.
On Friday, the DNC heard from Sens. Hillary Clinton of New York, Barack Obama of Illinois and Chris Dodd of Connecticut, former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio and retired NATO commander Wesley Clark of Arkansas.
The war in Iraq dominated all the speeches, with every candidate heaping criticism on the way President Bush has conducted the conflict and opposing the president's plan to increase U.S. troops in an attempt to pacify Baghdad.
But on Saturday, Vilsack also took aim at Clinton, Obama, Dodd and Biden - though he did not mention them by name - for refusing to cut off funding for the war. "It is time for us to clearly say the war must end and our troops must be brought home now," he said. "Let me say that I think Congress has a constitutional responsibility and a moral obligation to do it now. Not a cap, an end. Not eventually, immediately."
Similarly, Richardson said, "We've done what we said we'd do in Iraq. We rid the world of a brutal dictator. We've brought about free and fair elections three times over. The Iraqis now have a constitution, over 200,000 armed soldiers. They have huge oil revenue. It's time for our troops to leave with honor."
Biden has offered a multipart plan that would effectively divide Iraq into Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish states that would share Iraq's oil revenues. Under his plan, most U.S. troops would leave Iraq within 18 months of its being put in place.
"Draw down, do not escalate American troops," Biden said Saturday. And directing his remarks to Bush, he added, "Mr. President, the majority of Americans who oppose you in Iraq are not the ones emboldening the enemy.?That's the one mission you have accomplished."
Saturday's lineup also included former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel, a virtual unknown who left elective office in 1981. He said anyone who voted for the war in Iraq in 2002 "is not qualified to be president."
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