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The Morning Grind / DayAhead |
Spelling democracy without D.C.
By John Mercurio
CNN Political Unit
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Dean at a distance: Although he's not in Washington, he's likely to prevail in the District of Columbia's primary.
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VIDEO
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CNN's Candy Crowley on Howard Dean firing back at opponents.
A CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll finds Dean and Clark in the lead.
Dick Gephardt on Letterman: Top 10 'Signs you've been on the campaign trail too long.'
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| UPCOMING PRIMARIES |
• Today: District of Columbia primary • Monday, January 19: Iowa Caucuses • Tuesday, January 27: New Hampshire primary When is your primary? For more key dates in the 2004 election season, see our special America Votes 2004 Election Calendar |
SPECIAL REPORT
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- This city just can't catch a break. Howard Dean, it seems, would rather cool his heels in Burlington today than show his face in Washington as local Democrats (a handful of them, at least) cast "votes" in their first-in-the-nation-non-binding-beauty-contest.
Dean, of course, will be in Iowa next Monday and New Hampshire on January 27, when those states vote. (CNN.com's interactive Election Calendar)
No problem, really, D.C. Dems will surely reply. We'll vote for you anyway.
But then, at least Dean kept his name on the city's ballot. Every other major '04 Dem bowed out of the District of Columbia race, fearing a showdown with Terry McAuliffe and New Hampshire voters. (Dean: 'Tired of being the pin cushion')
Today, while Dean battles three also-rans in Washington, John Kerry meets veterans in Waterloo (with Christie Vilsack attached at the hip), Dick Gephardt jets from New York to Washington state, while Joe Lieberman, Wesley Clark and John Edwards campaign in the Granite State.
Lieberman and Clark, both of whom cite new polls that show them gaining momentum in New Hampshire, are working hard to cloak themselves today in the mystique of the Comeback Kid (Bill Clinton, not Kerry). Much more on this below.
In fact, the only Democrat planning to campaign in Washington today is Al Sharpton, who along with Dennis Kucinich has campaigned actively in the city.
Still, Dean's likely to prevail. A dismal turnout of 5 percent to 8 percent is expected, meaning voters are likely to be well-educated and wealthy (typically Dean's base, not Sharpton's).
Dean also has the support of D.C. council member Jack Evans, who authored the D.C. primary bill last year, and two of his colleagues: Jim Graham, who's openly gay, and Adrian Fenty, who's openly eyeing a mayoral bid someday.
In an interview yesterday, Evans defended his city's decision to move the primary from May to January, saying it's just as legitimate as the Iowa and New Hampshire votes coming up later this month. (CNN.com's Special Report: America Votes 2004)
As for all the mocking, he said, we're used to it. "There's an attempt to demean what we're doing here. People are going out of their way to do that, because we're bucking the establishment," he told the Grind. "I'm baffled."
In the next breath, however, Evans offered up some mockery of his own, calling the D.C. Democratic state committee's vote last summer to create a non-binding primary a "mistake."
"You've got some people over there who are just happy to be at the party," said Evans, referring to committee members. "When push came to shove [with the Democratic National Committee] they were perfectly willing to back down." (Evans' chief of staff, John Ralls, was more blunt. He called committee members "spineless wimps").
Indeed, the committee did back down last year under pressure from Donna Brazile, a former committee member who was acting on behalf of the DNC in early '03 when she urged the panel to hold a January balloting that expresses little more than a voter preference. (The city's 38 delegates to the Democratic National Convention will be determined in caucuses in February and March, although 28 are "super-delegates" and already have been selected.)
Leiberman, not Lewis, and Clark
Now, moving on to Lieberman and Clark, who polls show could be reaping some payoff from their decision to skip Iowa and focus on New Hampshire.
Lieberman will travel to Dover today to speak at the Elks Lodge, where Clinton famously made his "last dog dies" speech and proclaimed himself the Comeback Kid on February 18, 1992. There, aides say, Lieberman will not so coincidentally speak about Clinton's legacy and proclaim himself that legacy's only legitimate heir.
"Democrats have to embrace the Clinton legacy or reject it," one Lieberman aide said, distilling the speech's basic themes. "He's going to lay out the case for building on the legacy and talk about how he's the only candidate who's actually capable of building on it. He'll identify the key policy elements that made Clinton Clinton, including recognizing the importance of trade and tax cuts."
For his part, Clark will announce the arrival in New Hampshire of nearly a dozen prominent FOBs (friends of Bill) who will stump for him in the campaign's closing days. Sources say the list includes ex-Sens. David Pryor and Dale Bumpers of Arkansas, longtime friend Skip Rutherford, congressmen Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, Anthony Wiener of New York, Mary Frances Berry, Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton, former Navy Secretary John Dalton, former State Department spokesman Jamie Rubin and former Commerce Secretary Mickey Kantor.
All of these folks have previously signed on to the Clark campaign. But Clark is bringing them to New Hampshire to further link himself with the steadfastly neutral former president.
"President Clinton is enormously popular and obviously we are gratified to have the support of people who were and are close to him," Clark spokesman Matt Bennett told the Grind. "Bill Clinton found a path to the White House and did it starting in New Hampshire, and we'd like to emulate that."
Endorsements, incoming
Speaking of Dean endorsements (we did somewhere above, didn't we?), his campaign yesterday rolled out Florida Rep. Corrine Brown as the first of several House members backing the governor this week.
There will be more on tap as the week unfolds, and we're told that, like Brown, they'll be either black or Hispanic. (Are you listening, South Carolina?).
Bigger fish loom large in the coming weeks.
We're told that Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano has all but agreed to sign on to Dean's campaign, joining Jim McGreevey of New Jersey as the only sitting governor who has backed a non-native son in the '04 Democratic primary.
Understandably, however, Napolitano is not expected to do so until shortly before her state's primary on February 3.
