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Digging Howard Dean

Overflow Crowd Supports 2004 Prez Candidate

by Sandeep Kaushik

At an April 2 evening "meetup" organized over the Internet, an overflow crowd of about 200 Howard Dean supporters gathered at Piecora's Pizza on Madison and 14th to hear a pep talk from a former Dean aide and pepper Dean's local campaign leaders with questions about the best way to help get Dean elected. Nationally, Dean, until recently Vermont's governor, has skyrocketed from obscurity to become a credible contender for the nomination on the basis of his attacks charging other mainstream Democratic candidates with being mealy-mouthed on the Iraq war.

So many Dean partisans gathered in the restaurant's small backroom that about a dozen were left to peer in from the entry hall. John Taylor, a recent Vermont transplant and former Dean aide who is now a city hall legislative staffer, sang the praises of his former boss.

"There are two kinds of politicians," Taylor said. "Those that want to do something, and those that want to be something. Howard Dean wants to do something." Praising Dean's push for Vermont's one-of-a-kind civil unions law, Taylor told the Capitol Hill crowd, "I don't think I've ever seen a governor take that big a political risk," saying Dean pressed forward with the law in the face of death threats. Taylor also rejected press characterizations of Dean as a typical liberal, pointing out the governor's fiscal conservatism and nuanced views on gun control. In recent appearances, Dean has also emphasized that he is not a left-wing peacenik, in spite of his opposition to invading Iraq.

Inundated with questions from attendees, many of whom praised Dean's Iraq stand, Taylor and the three others who currently compose the Dean effort in Washington State said the campaign was only now getting organized.

Nationally that same evening, Dean meetups were held in 151 cities, drawing more than 4,000 attendees. Already, the campaign says, 13,350 people have registered nationally for the next Dean meetup, compared to only 790 for John Kerry.

sandeep@thestranger.com