Dean Ponders Bid To Become DNC Chairman
By CHRISTOPHER GRAFF, Associated Press Writer
MONTPELIER, Vt. - Former presidential candidate Howard Dean (news - web sites) is considering a bid to become chairman of the national Democratic Party.
"He told me he was thinking about it," Steve Grossman, himself a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee (news - web sites), said Monday. Grossman was a Dean backer during the former Vermont governor\'s failed presidential bid.
Dean was traveling Monday in New York and unavailable for comment. His spokeswoman, Laura Gross, said "it was far too early to be speculating on that. The election was less than a week ago."
The roughly 240 members of the DNC will elect a new chair early next year. Several names are already being mentioned, including former Clinton aide Harold Ickes; Donna Brazile, who ran Al Gore (news - web sites)\'s presidential campaign, and Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack.
Grossman said it is not too soon for Democrats to focus on their future leadership.
"I strongly urged (Dean) to seek the position," he said. "Howard is a voice of political empowerment and that to me is important, for the Democrats to get their sea legs back as quickly as possible, to get beyond the disappointment of the last week and to believe there is a bright future ahead for the Democratic Party."
Dean has been outspoken since the beginning of his presidential bid in saying that the Democratic Party must establish a separate and unique identity from Republicans.
Grossman said that if Dean were to run for DNC chair, he would need to pledge that he would serve the full four-year term, thus ruling out a presidential bid in 2008.
The next chairman will replace Terry McAuliffe, whose term is ending.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041108/ap_on_re_us/dean_dnc_1This would be great news! For us Republicans anyway!
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