2/19/2004

Dean makes it official; he's done

Ross Sneyd
Associated Press

BURLINGTON, Vt. — Howard Dean, bowing to the political realities of a 17-contest losing streak, ended his Democratic presidential campaign yesterday but promised to keep his “campaign for change” alive while supporting his party’s eventual nominee.

The former Vermont governor did not endorse either of his top rivals, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts or Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina. He called both men before his announcement to tell them his decision.

“I am no longer actively pursuing the presidency,” Dean told a crowd of cheering, flag-waving supporters. “We will, however, continue to build a new organization using our enormous grass-roots network to continue the effort to transform the Democratic Party and to change our country.”

Dean sounded a theme of party unity, saying, “The bottom line is that we must beat George W. Bush in November, whatever it takes.”

He ruled out running as a third-party or independent candidate, but he also said he and his supporters would continue to be a force for change: “We are not going away. We’re staying together unified all of us.” He vowed to “continue to campaign for change,” working to keep his issues alive.

“There is enormous institutional pressure in Washington against change, in the Democratic Party against change,” Dean said. “Yet, you have already started to change the party and together we have transformed this race. The fight that we began can and must continue.”

As Dean spoke, he was flanked by his wife Judy, a physician whose rare appearance on the campaign trail had been the subject of discussion of whether she was a proper political wife. Dean drew cheers when he saluted her for starting the debate in the country “about whether a woman needs to gaze adoringly at her husband or follow her own career.”

Dean’s free-fall from the spot of top contender for the Democratic nomination began in January with poor showings in the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary and culminated in Tuesday’s loss in Wisconsin’s primary. Dean was winless in 17 contests.

He exits the active race certain in the knowledge that he will live on in the annals of U.S. politics for shattering Democratic fund-raising records with $41 million collected in a single year.

Once a long-shot candidate, the Internet phenomenon filled his campaign coffers and attracted thousands of supporters through the spring and summer, pushing him to the head of the crowded Democratic field.

Historians will judge, but Dean and his devoted supporters are convinced that they more than anyone else defined the Democratic debate through his unwavering criticism of President Bush, the Iraq war and Democrats who helped Bush push his agenda through Congress.

Nothing could dissuade the 640,000 people who joined his campaign via his Web site. They contributed $41 million last year and then pumped millions more this year into a campaign that was faltering even before Iowans dealt the first blow.

As he left the Vermont governor’s office in January 2003 after nearly 12 years, Dean had a presidential campaign staff of a half-dozen and about $157,000 in the bank.