Democratic
National Committee chairman Howard Dean faces several
formidable challenges. Some U.S. states are determined to
move up the dates of their presidential primaries,
despite the potential for upending the nomination
process, and organizers of the party's 2008 convention in
Denver are already dealing with labor and financial woes.
Dean's biggest
test will come next year, when the party will serve
primarily as a shadow campaign operation for its
presidential nominee.
But first he must
contend with Florida, whose decision to push its
primary to January 29 could set off a ripple effect among
other states eager to move up as well. The party's
rules and bylaws committee is expected to reject
Florida's plan at an August 25 meeting in Washington,
but that is not expected to stop Democrats in the state from
observing the new primary date.
Nearly a dozen
other states, including California and New Jersey, have
already moved their primaries or caucuses--party
meetings to endorse nominees--to February 5. A
dozen more are considering such moves. The bid to hold
earlier primaries gives states more influence in selecting a
party's nominee for the 2008 presidential race.
In past elections
early primaries effectively determined who would have
the parties' nominations. That meant large states with later
primaries, such as California, had little role in the
selection process.
With the first
nominating contests just six months away, the campaigns of
Democratic presidential candidates are frustrated with the
uncertainty. It has inhibited their ability to craft a
strategy for winning the nomination in what already
promises to be an unprecedented race because of the
plethora of early contests, record-breaking fund-raising and
an unusually crowded field.
Critics contend
that a stronger chairman might have persuaded Florida
Democrats to abide by party rules not to jump ahead of
February 5 and refuse to participate in the January
primary, which was championed by the state's
Republican governor and legislature. Others say Dean did
what he could to fight the change, including lobbying
Democratic legislators. Ultimately, they said there
was little he could do to alter the outcome.
''When it came
down to it, our state executive committee said there was
zero support for holding anything other than a January 29
primary,'' Florida Democratic Party spokesman Mark
Bobriski said. ''It was a force of nature
here--they didn't want to see Democratic voters
disenfranchised.''
For his part,
former Democratic Party chairman Don Fowler said states
have been poised to upend the primary calendar for years,
and regrettably for Dean, it happened on his watch.
''He couldn't
have done anything to make this go away--no national
chairman can,'' Fowler said. ''The folks in the states would
just say, 'Go back to Washington and mind your own
business.'''
Then there is
Denver, which will host the party's convention next
year--a selection that has been problematic,
mostly because of fund-raising challenges and the
city's fractious relationship with organized labor, a
key Democratic Party constituency.
Last month, the
convention host committee said it would fall well short
of meeting its quarterly fund-raising goal. And the AFL-CIO
has threatened to force Democrats to abandon Denver
after Colorado's Democratic governor, Bill Ritter,
vetoed a bill that would have made it easier to set up
all-union workplaces.
Dean declined to
be interviewed for this story. His aides note that many
of the problems he faces have befallen other party chairmen
and that Republicans are coping with similar ones,
including a potentially chaotic primary calendar and
fund-raising for their 2008 convention.
The difference
this time, Dean aides argue, is that the Democratic Party
will be better prepared for the general election than ever
before.
''Governor Dean's
legacy will be to ensure that our nominee will have a
strong infrastructure to win the presidency and to truly be
a national party,'' spokeswoman Karen Finney said.
Underscoring all
of this is Dean's vision for how the party should
operate. The former Vermont governor is widely popular with
state parties and many grassroots Democrats, who
helped fuel his insurgent 2004 presidential candidacy.
But he is still viewed skeptically by much of the
Washington-based political establishment.
Some of Dean's
most vocal detractors were previously advisors to former
President Bill Clinton, potentially complicating matters
between the party and its presidential front-runner,
Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Nationally, the
party's fund-raising trails that of the Republican Party.
The party has pulled in about $28 million so far this year,
compared with more than $46 million for the Republican
National Committee.
Dean's focus has
been on strengthening state parties, irking those who
believe the national party's chief function is to help fund
competitive races. Dean's effort to create a national
voter database within the party has been challenged by
operatives of another, for-profit company building a
competing voter file.
And his so-called
50-state strategy, which has sent paid organizers in
state parties across the country, has been mocked by some as
naive and ineffective.
Still, to Dean's
fans--and there are legions of them--he has
taken a much-needed sledgehammer to a calcified
Democratic establishment.
''Among DNC
members, there's just wild enthusiasm for Howard,'' said
Elaine Kamarck, a former Democratic strategist and professor
at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. ''The
people he's upsetting are the Washington-based
political class, who make a lot of money making
television ads.''
Kamarck produced
an analysis this year testing whether the 50-state
strategy had helped Democrats win House seats last year. She
concluded that, in districts where the party had
placed operatives, Democratic voter turnout went up
measurably beyond the ''bounce'' Democrats were
getting nationally. (Beth Fouhy, AP)