Dean blasts Kerry's fund-raising tactics
He said the front-runner has special interests. Kerry says he has taken no checks from groups.
Associated Press
TUCSON, Ariz. - Howard Dean looked to gain an edge over Democratic presidential front-runner John Kerry yesterday by labeling the Massachusetts senator the "handmaiden of special interests."
In a speech at the outdoor Georges Demester Performance Center, Dean cited a study by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan political research group in Washington, that said Kerry raised nearly $640,000 from lobbyists over the last 15 years, more than any other senator.
"We are not going to beat George Bush with somebody who has his hands as deeply in the lobbyists' pockets as George W. Bush's," Dean said. "We need somebody from outside Washington to clean up Washington, and not another special-interest senator."
Kerry shot back quickly. In an interview with a local television station, he said, "I've never taken from groups. The only people who have contributed to my campaign are individual Americans. Now are some of those individual Americans lobbyists? Yeah, sure. I am the only person in the United States Senate who has been elected four times who has voluntarily refused to take any checks from political action committees."
Dean is drawing heavy financial support from two large labor unions. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees' political action committee has spent more than $1.7 million on polling, ads and get-out-the-vote efforts. A Service Employees International Union PAC has spent close to $1 million.
Dean said he doesn't consider unions a special interest, and many of Kerry's donations are from business lobbyists.
Voters in Arizona, South Carolina, Missouri, Delaware, New Mexico, North Dakota and Oklahoma will choose Democratic presidential delegates on Tuesday.
Heading into a frantic weekend of campaigning, polls showed Kerry with a commanding lead in Missouri, Arizona and North Dakota.
But pollsters working for the campaigns said the race was tightening in Missouri and Arizona.
Public polls were mixed in South Carolina, with one showing Kerry and Sen. John Edwards tied and another giving the North Carolina senator a lead in the chase for delegates.
In Oklahoma, polls showed Kerry, Wesley Clark and Edwards locked in a three-way race.
Party strategists and polls gave Kerry the edge in New Mexico and Delaware.
Experts in every state had a word of caution. "Though Kerry looks awfully strong, there are still enough undecided voters to make things interesting everywhere," said Tom Dickson, chairman of the North Dakota Democratic Party.
Kerry sought to broaden his message yesterday by arguing that his campaign was designed to "offer America hope and leadership."
"Strip away the labels, strip away the partisanship," Kerry told a raucous crowd of about 700 at a downtown Kansas City, Mo., hotel.
"People in America want real solutions."
Edwards, who has acknowledged that South Carolina is a must-win state for him, swept through three other states yesterday in hopes of building new support in the next burst of delegate-selection contests.
"I'm so ready for a shot at George Bush. If you give me a shot at George Bush, I'll give you the White House," Edwards said to a crowd at a theater in Kansas City.
Edwards hopes to be able to survive Tuesday's primaries to position himself to campaign in the two Southern states that hold primaries Feb. 10: Virginia and Tennessee.
Clark barnstormed across Arizona and New Mexico yesterday, sharpening his criticism of President Bush, calling him "the most divisive, polarizing leader in recent American history."
Clark has targeted Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma as the states most likely to deliver him a badly needed win.
At a rally in Mesilla, N.M., Clark said: "George W. Bush is going to run on his national security record. I know more about national security than George W. Bush has ever thought about, and I can hold him accountable." |
