Howard Dean re-emphasized his “Washington outsider” credentials Monday as he defended his record on diversity and fought to keep his campaign surge alive in the final week before the presidential nominating contest begins.
Dean, who in recent months has received more news coverage than any other Democratic contender, also claimed during campaign stops in southeastern Iowa that he’s become a target of the “establishment media.”
But it was the outsider theme Dean hammered the hardest Monday, one day after civil rights activist Al Sharpton accused him in a televised debate of ignoring diversity when selecting Cabinet members as Vermont’s governor. During the two-hour weekend forum, Dean often struggled to respond to the charges.
Hopefuls barnstorm state
The outsider emphasis was directed at all of his leading opponents, but for the first time Dean pointed it squarely at Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, who has won praise for avoiding negative campaigning. Edwards has captured the endorsement of Iowa’s largest newspaper, The Des Moines Register, and appears to be gaining some ground in the state.
“I know one of them will tell you, `I’ve only been in Washington for three years. I’m not a real Washington politician,'” Dean said, referring to Edwards. “But when you go to Washington, you’re a Washington politician.”
In the final push before the Jan. 19 Iowa caucuses, candidates barnstormed across the state Monday by car, tour bus and airplane. Former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois, who has not opened a campaign office in the state, missed her sole event of the day in what a spokeswoman described as a miscommunication.
A Chicago Tribune poll taken last week showed that nearly 4 in 10 Iowans said they could switch candidates before the caucuses, a notion that has lent an air of uncertainty to the campaign. Thousands of workers for the leading campaigns have descended on Iowa.
Before arriving in Mt. Pleasant, Dean criticized each of his leading Democratic rivals during a lunchtime speech in a Chinese restaurant in Washington, Iowa. He told voters he was the only candidate capable of changing the culture in the other Washington.
“It’s time for someone from outside Washington to take over in Washington,” Dean said, “and send somebody from Washington, Iowa, and Washington, Vt., to Washington, D.C., to make sure the place gets run properly.”
Asked about his new focus on Edwards, Dean said he’s simply including the senator with the other members of Congress running for president, specifically Rep. Richard Gephardt of Missouri and Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.
On the defensive
“I don’t think he has unfairly gone after me, and I don’t think I’m unfairly going after him,” Dean said. “The fact is he voted for the war. . . . There’s no difference between John Edwards, Dick Gephardt and John Kerry.”
But Dean quickly went on the defensive when asked about the racial diversity of his senior campaign staff. It was a question that Sharpton first raised during the debate.
“You’re never going to ever find me playing that game,” Dean said. “The headcount, the name game.”
Later, Dean’s campaign provided to reporters a list of 20 Hispanic and African-American campaign workers, including some who are senior advisers and state directors.
While Dean has managed to attract young and old supporters to his campaign, he has struggled to attract blacks, something the other candidates have suggested will keep him from winning in the South and will damage the party’s prospects in the general election.
Dean pledged that, if sent to the White House, his Cabinet would “look like the rest of America.”
Many Democratic activists here say they are struggling to select a candidate who can complete the ultimate prize: denying Bush a second term in the White House.
At a pancake breakfast in Pella, college professor Richard McGrath asked Dean why he deserved the nomination more than Kerry.
“Because I can win,” Dean said, “and I’m not from Washington.”
