“No good deed goes unpunished.” Those words will be emblazoned on Howard Dean’s tombstone, or should be.
Of all those responsible for Barack Obama’s successful campaign, Dean is the least recognized and most unrewarded. Yet in many ways, Dean paved the way for Obama’s victory. He was John the Baptist to Obama’s Messiah.
In 2004, then-Gov. Howard Dean – like Obama, a long-shot primary candidate and Washington outsider – didn’t have access to traditional sources of funding for Democratic candidates. He turned instead to the Internet, building a huge base of small but repetitive online donors nationwide.
Mocked at first as hopelessly naive, Dean soon shocked the political establishment by shattering Bill Clinton’s previous fundraising record, raising over $50 million in campaign contributions from tens of thousands of supporters, 38 percent of whom gave less than $200. Dean also became the first Democrat to forego federal matching funds, and thus escape the spending limits that go with them.
Obama, of course, followed Dean’s lead in both areas. He also declined public financing and raised a significant portion of his funds from 212,000 repeat online donors, who gave $200 or more. Overall, Obama displayed a fundraising prowess that will be difficult for any future candidate to match, amassing an astounding $750 million for the general and primary campaigns. But he did it all by following a path forged by Howard Dean.
After losing the primary to John Kerry, Howard Dean settled for the consolation prize of serving as the Democratic Party’s next national chairman – whereupon he was immediately snubbed by party leaders. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid let it be known that they, not Chairman Dean, would speak for party policy. Rep. Rahm Emanuel, then chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, publicly scolded Dean for not raising enough money for congressional races. Other leading Democrats simply ignored him.
Meanwhile, Dean again broke with tradition by building what he called a “50 state” strategy. Instead of concentrating resources in big blue states to help Democratic incumbents, as Emanuel demanded, Dean hired organizers chosen by state parties in every one of the 50 states. For the first time, Democrats actually opened field offices in places where they’d never been seen before: Kansas, Utah, Montana, Missouri, Mississippi – even Alaska. And Dean visited every one of them.
To many Democrats, it seemed crazy at the time. But when 2007 rolled around, Democratic primary candidates could count on an existing political base in every state: red, blue and purple. Nobody took advantage of that resource better than Barack Obama. He also decided to build a campaign operation in every state. He wisely targeted smaller, caucus states, not just the big primary states. And when he arrived in those states, he found an existing political operation, built by Howard Dean.
Obama wasn’t the only one to benefit from Dean’s 50-state strategy. During his tenure as DNC chair, Democrats also won back control of both houses of Congress, plus the majority of state legislatures and the majority of governorships – all of which they had lost under the Clinton years. Again, Democrats found themselves winning where they’d never even been competitive before. And while those big wins cannot be solely attributed to Dean, they couldn’t have happened without him.
In one other important way, Howard Dean, perhaps unintentionally, helped Obama. When Michigan and Florida violated DNC rules by moving their primaries forward, Dean immediately ruled that their delegates would not be counted in the tally necessary to win the nomination. Without their votes, Hillary Clinton could never catch up. Fairly or unfairly, Dean’s discounting of Michigan and Florida helped make Obama appear unbeatable – and Hillary, desperate.
For all his success in rebuilding and expanding the Democratic Party base, Howard Dean is being amply rewarded. Right? No, it didn’t exactly work out that way.
Once Obama was elected, Dean realized that his old nemesis, Rahm Emanuel, now White House chief of staff, would convince the new president to put his own man in the job, so he stepped down as DNC chair rather than seek a second term. Dean applied for appointment as secretary of Health and Human Services instead, but was quickly shot down. So now Dr. Dean is left with no job and few options, except returning to Vermont to practice medicine.
But who said politics is fair? No good deed goes unpunished.
