Dean Steps Down, Kaine Steps Up

[undeterred]

posted by Ari Berman on 01/21/2009 @ 5:17pm

Wednesday afternoon marked the last day for Howard Dean as chairman of the Democratic National Committee and the first day for Virginia Governor Tim Kaine on the job. As I've argued in a series of Nation articles ("The Prophet" and "Dean's Legacy"), Dean was the best DNC chair in decades, redefining the often thankless job, reenergizing and rebuilding the moribund party he inherited and laying the foundation for Barack Obama's historic campaign through his visionary--and not always popular among Beltway insiders--fifty-state strategy.

As he took the reins of party chair at the winter meeting of the DNC, Kaine spoke freely about the debt he feels to Dean. "I feel like I'm taking over from somebody who just won three Super Bowls in a row," Kaine said at the beginning of his remarks. "This fifty-state strategy that you articulated in your time has been a magnificent success." Kaine described how Dean had invested heavily in Kaine's gubernatorial election in 2005 and subsequent races in Virginia. He called him, "as good a chairman as this party has ever had."

Dean himself has, at times, been treated less than stellar by the Obama team (see tomorrow's Nation for more on that story), but his fifty-state strategy now seems ingrained in the party's DNA. "The fifty-state strategy was so simple and so powerful and so true," Kaine said. "Obama adopted it in Virginia; they had sixty offices just in Virginia alone. All over this country we saw the same thing happening and the results speak for themselves."

<snip>

The core of Dean's plan revolved around giving state Democratic parties the money to hire three to four political organizers on a full-time, year-round basis. After the election, the party's contracts with those nearly 200 organizers expired. The Obama team is currently in the process of reconstituting the strategy and figuring out which states need what. "There's no doubt we're going to play strong in all fifty states," Kaine told reporters afterward. "Exactly how we make it work in each state, that's what we need to assess." He said the new fifty-state strategy would be "tailored to match each state's circumstances" and that more details would be revealed in the next couple of weeks.

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/state_of_change/400282/dean_steps_down_kaine_steps_up?rel=hpbox

[sarge43]

1. Thank you, Doctor Dean. We owe you more than we can ever repay. n/t

[midnight]

2. I'm so grateful that you were on our side. Bless you, and

hopefully your next dream job lands in your lap.

[BlueMTexpat]

3. I am so glad to see articles like this ... hope this one

wipes the smarmy smile right off Rahm's face. He has much less class than his boss, although I STILL cannot understand why Obama went along with Rahm, apparently so willingly.

We owe Dr. Dean a tremendous debt. May he enjoy a few months of not having to think about us all ... for a change.