WASHINGTON -- Candidates for the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee talked Tuesday about the need to rebuild the party from the ground up as they pitched themselves to Democratic mayors.
Howard Dean, a 2004 presidential candidate, reminded the mayors that he has run presidential campaigns, raised millions of dollars and organized voters throughout the country.
"This is all about local politics," Dean told the National Conference of Democratic Mayors at a Washington hotel. "If you want to win, you have to start at the bottom."
Dean, the former governor of Vermont, got the endorsement Tuesday of the entire DNC delegation from Florida as well as the state Democratic chairs of Mississippi, Utah, Oklahoma, Washington state and Vermont.
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Tim Roemer, the former Indiana congressman who is more conservative than the other candidates, said Democrats "need a chairman who can go into all 50 states and help Democrats win elections." He said he has confidence DNC members will not have a "litmus test" on issues like abortion; Roemer opposes some abortion procedures. He has collected the backing of several prominent Democrats, including Louisiana Sen. John Breaux and California Rep. Ellen Tauscher.
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