Dean in South Carolina says Dems value the state's diversity,

[madfloridian]

http://www.charleston.net/assets/webPages/departmental/news/Stories.aspx?section=localnews&tableId=128668&pubDate=1/30/2007

"South Carolina's role as one of the nation's earliest presidential contests - along with Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada - will help Democratic presidential candidates take their message to different voters, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said Monday.

"We wanted to make sure that all the candidates had to campaign to get the nomination by early on going to all the core constituency groups of the Democratic Party," he said. Dean said the four earliest primaries and caucuses provide both geographic and ethnic diversity, "and South Carolina provides geographic diversity and a significant proportion of African-American voters who have been shut out of early primaries before this."

Dean was in S.C. on Monday, visiting Columbia and Charleston to attend private fundraisers aimed at helping the state party raise the $500,000 it will take to stage the Democratic primary on Jan. 29, 2008.

"I came down a year ahead of time just to see how everything was going and to see if I could be helpful," Dean said. "South Carolina has experience with this, having done it four years ago."

[Cha]

1. Dean on the move looking

and learning at what needs to be done and how to raise it in South Carolina for the ol' Presidential Democratic Primary.