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Though their candidate is finished, Dean supporters hope to keep some political clout
by Tom Scheck, Minnesota Public Radio
February 18, 2004

Javier Morillo says it's impressive how Dean raised millions of dollars in small donations and created meet-ups so supporters could discuss issues. (MPR Photo/Tom Scheck)

Howard Dean supporters throughout the state say they're disappointed that their candidate didn't do better in the nation's primaries. But they say even with their candidate out of the race they'll continue their organizational efforts to defeat President Bush in November. Supporters for Dean say they hope to use Dean's grassroots strategies to raise money and help get out the vote in November.

St. Paul, Minn. — Reade Bailey says he was never really interested in politics until he heard a Dean speech last June. The Eden Prairie resident says he became active in Howard Dean's campaign because he was unhappy with President Bush's policies on the national debt, the war in Iraq and the economy.

"He gave the Democrats a backbone again," Bailey says. "He said it was alright to be a Democrat again and what Bush and the right-wing conservative Republicans in Washington D.C. was bad for the country and bad for the people and bad for the future. He stood up when nobody else would."

Javier Morrillo says those qualities also attracted him to the Dean campaign. He started volunteering for Dean in May and was part of his paid get-out-the-vote staff during the Iowa caucuses. The St. Paul resident says Dean's biggest impact on politics was attracting first time and disaffected voters to the campaign.

Morillo says it's impressive how Dean raised millions of dollars in small donations and created meet-ups so supporters could discuss issues.

My candidate is pulling out of the race and I haven't even been able to cast a vote yet. - Chris von Rabenau, Dean supporter

"The thing about this campaign is that the grassroots came to Dean. Dean did not create this movement, the grassroots came to Dean. And the brilliance of his campaign was they knew what to do with it. They knew how to harness that and what to make something really big out of it. What took us a very long time to build, it seems like was destroyed so quickly," Morillo says.

But the qualities that attracted Morillo and others to Dean's campaign didn't resonate as widely with voters who showed up at the polls and caucuses.

Duluth resident Chris von Rabenau says he's disappointed that he won't be able to cast his ballot for Dean during the Minnesota caucuses on March 2. He says he's unhappy that there are only two candidates who are considered front-runners for the Democratic nomination.

"In a lot of ways, I feel like as a Minnesotan the system has failed because here my candidate is pulling out of the race and I haven't even been able to cast a vote yet. And I certainly feel that the press for some reason whatever that may be targeted Dean as a candidate that they wanted to get rid of," von Rabenau says.

Von Rabenau says he's especially unhappy with the way radio and television continued to play Dean's speech after the Iowa caucuses. The speech became known as the "Dean scream" throughout the campaign.

St. Paul resident Laura Nevitt says she isn't sure if she'll throw her support behind either of the two Democratic frontrunners, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry or North Carolina Sen. John Edwards. She says, however, that she'll go to the caucuses and encourage other Dean supporters to stay engaged in the political process. She says Dean's impact on politics will continue to resonate among other politicians. She says Senators Kerry and Edwards have taken many of Dean's ideas and used them as their own.

"Dean had started the 'meet up' trend and was huge at it and all of the other campaigns jumped on board. He was big with the Internet thing and they all jumped on board. He definitely has a legacy and he's created something that all the rest of them wish they had," Nevitt says.

Others say they're concerned that those who were attracted to Dean because he had an outsider message will become disengaged with politics again.

Minneapolis resident Clare Sorman is more hopeful. She says she'd like to see Dean supporters attend the March caucuses to bring about change in the Minnesota DFL Party. Sorman says she'd like to see some fresh faces and new ideas in the DFL Party.

"It's not go in and take over with guns ablazing; that's not what we would like to portray. It's more banding together as an organization of people who are committed to change and committed to standing up to the true issues that we face in our state," she says. Sorman says she also doesn't know who she'll support during the March caucuses. Others have said that they will continue to support Dean with the hopes of having Dean delegates at the party convention in Boston.

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