Change #9456752004:
Dean Vows to Stay in Race Past Wisconsin Tuesday, 17-Feb-2004 6:32AM Story from AP / MIKE GLOVER
MILWAUKEE (AP) -- Democratic front-runner John Kerry promised to help military personnel and jobless Americans as Wisconsin voters decided Tuesday whether to push forward his campaign or boost his rivals for the presidential nomination.
Howard Dean and John Edwards, Kerry's major competitors, vowed to stay in the race even if they lost yet another delegate election to the Massachusetts senator. Polls showed Kerry poised to deny Dean his first primary victory and Edwards a follow-up to his win in South Carolina.
Kerry criticized President Bush rather than his rivals Tuesday, contending the president had not kept his promises to men and women in the military. He pledged to improve their health care, housing, pay and equipment.
"George W. Bush and Dick Cheney came into office promising this country's veterans that 'help is on the way.' Three years later, we know that this statement couldn't be further from the truth," Kerry said in a statement.
In a rally Tuesday morning with labor unions and Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt, a former candidate for the nomination who now endorses Kerry, the Massachusetts senator renewed his criticism of tax cuts and job losses during the Bush administration.
"I will fight for manufacturing jobs by giving real incentives to keep jobs in the United States, making sure manufacturers can compete by making health care more affordable and assuring that these companies can compete on a level playing field. Unlike the Bush administration, I want to repeal every tax break and loophole that rewards any Benedict Arnold CEO or corporation for shipping American jobs overseas," Kerry said in comments prepared for the rally.
Dean and Edwards campaigned for last-minute support in Milwaukee, each hoping to defy polls that predict a Kerry victory in the contest for Wisconsin's 72 delegates. Dean said a loss would not end his bid for the nomination and denied his organization was in turmoil following the departure of its national chairman, Steve Grossman.
"We're moving forward and we're gonna go to Super Tuesday and on beyond that. We have very strong field organizations," Dean told "Today" on NBC. "I think there needs to be a continued debate in the party about what we're doing."
Dean declined to say whether Grossman had quit or had been fired after telling reporters that Dean was likely to leave the race if he lost in Wisconsin. Grossman also fueled speculation that he would seek to join the Kerry campaign in the wake of another loss by the former Vermont governor.
The departure of Grossman obscured Dean's message in a state with a tradition of supporting liberals, mavericks and Washington outsiders -- a state Dean has said he badly needed to bounce back from a long string of losses. It was the second shake-up in recent weeks in a campaign that had been the presumptive front-runner. Former campaign manager Joe Trippi was forced out earlier.
Dean contended his campaign remained solid with more delegates than anyone but Kerry, the strongest presence in Wisconsin of any candidate, and a better infrastructure than any other campaign for the Super Tuesday contests March 2.
"We have an enormous base of grass-roots support who wants to fundamentally change America," Dean said. "We've struggled with fundamentally changing the Democratic Party. Many of the folks now running, including Senator Kerry, have adopted our positions on many issues, and I think that's terrific. We intend to have real change in Washington, and that's what this campaign's about. And we can't get there by quitting."
Edwards said he would sharpen the differences he has with all of his rivals and argued that he was in the race for the long haul. He said it was not too late for a surge in polls that have given Kerry a wide lead in the latest primary test.
"It's not too late because this primary process is going well into March," Edwards said Monday. "I want the voters to know what the differences are between us."
For his part, Edwards tried to sharpen the differences he has with both Kerry and Dean on trade issues, and he said it would be easier to get his message out now that the Democratic field has shrunk to half the size it began with.
"Voters will get a better sense of who we are and what the differences are between us," said Edwards.
Edwards was making plans for a campaign post-Wisconsin, scheduling a fund-raiser in New York for Wednesday night and announcing plans for a three-day swing through five states that will hold primaries on Super Tuesday.
He said trade could be a powerful issue in Wisconsin, where more than 74,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost, with many blaming the decline on companies shipping jobs overseas to take advantage of cheap labor.
That, however, was all based on the assumption that he scores well enough in Wisconsin to continue to be a force in the Democratic primaries. While he was generally upbeat, Dean's future was also in doubt. Aides described him as torn between reaching a pragmatic conclusion that the campaign is coming to a close, and his emotional attachment to a race in which he's been running for well over a year. |
