SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Democrats paid $250 apiece to hear comments from their national chairman behind closed doors. The focus was a bid by Democrat Dan Maffei for a Republican held Congressional seat.
But when Howard Dean emerged and faced reporters, the subject quickly shifted to the battle for the White House and the ongoing struggle between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Dean's goal was to emphasize the positive.
“Little did I know when we started the 50 state strategy that we were going to have a 50 state primary. But that's actually been terrific. We have 35 million new voters on our rolls. We have somewhere over a million Republicans who have switched their registration to become Democrats so they can vote in the Democratic primary, because they just can't stand what's happening to this country under the Republicans,” Dean said.
But there are concerns that the long battle has weakened both contenders and created divides within the Party that may cause trouble before November. In particular, divisions centered on gender and race.
The goal was to aid a candidate for Congress, but the leader of the Democratic National Committee found himself answering a number of questions about another race during a visit to Syracuse. Our Bill Carey has the details.
“I'm not going to get into that stuff. We'll be able to heal it and the people who will be healing to are the people who are in the race now,” Dean said.
Dean still has some tough issues to deal with, in particular, how to seat delegates from Florida and Michigan who have officially been banned for violation of Party rules. He believes there will be a deal soon. And as the final primaries play out and superdelegates make their decisions, the Party will scramble to pull itself together. Dean said one candidate will play a key role.
“The most important person in this race is the person who gets 49 percent of the delegates and doesn't win, because they can bring the Party together,” Dean said. “I believe these are two fine people and I think whoever doesn't win this race will come to the side of the person who does and work really hard.”
For now, Howard Dean said he won't even guess when one candidate or the other might finally give in.
Dean has been able to bring some unity to the Obama and Clinton campaigns, announcing this week that both had agreed to a joint fundraising effort called the "Democratic White House Victory Fund," designed to benefit the eventual nominee as well as the national party.