Dean Looks for New York Love

[reprehensor]

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0349/fahim.php

Howard Dean, still at full clip in his restless national bid for the presidency, is loath to spend a night away from his bed in Vermont.

"He'll take the red-eye back from California if it means he doesn't have to stay in a hotel," says Tricia Enright, a Dean spokesperson. That's hard when you're focused on winning some 14 states at once. This week he will be in Texas, Illinois, Iowa, Florida, South Carolina, and back to New York.

But New York is different from most stops. Here, he stays with his mother, Andree, in the comfortable Upper East Side apartment where he grew up. He has traveled to New York over a dozen times since March, and next week's high-profile visit includes a roast with film director Rob Reiner, and a party with actor Sandra Bernhardt.

If Manhattan is Governor Dean's second home, he also hopes to make it a political bulwark, providing him more than just a comfy bed in the months ahead. His campaign these days is digging a moat around New York, creating a safe zone should the polls that show him winning either Iowa, New Hampshire, or both, turn up bust.