Handicapping the race for DNC chair

[quaoar]

Good analysis at mydd:

http://www.mydd.com/story/2004/12/13/114845/48

Here's the first few candidates. The link has them all. But why does the ASDC hate 527s as is mentioned at the end of the piece??

DNC Chair CattleCall from Orlando's ASDC Meeting
by Jerome Armstrong

I should point out that the Orlando meeting was held by the ASDC, which is a group of state officers within the DNC member umbrella. It's a technicality, but a useful one to remember with the process. One other note, I hear that in the ASDC's Q & A, the candidates were all asked if they would turnover to the states, the ~4M list of emails and donors that the DNC had gathered, if they were DNC Chair. Ickes, Rosenberg, and Dean said no, the others basically said 'whatever it takes' to get your vote. Anyway, after three days in Orlando with the DNC members and the candidates, here's the roundup:

Leo Hindery, in the last CattleCall, was last, and now he's dropped out. After the blogosphere raked him over the coals for his past political actions, Hindery-surrogates spent a week trying to smooth it over with emails ('talk with him, he's a good guy'), before Leo arrived in Orlando in his private jet, only to leave 4 hours later, dropping out of the race.

Howard Dean has a great time, but he's still not declared himself a candidate, and he's still not the frontrunner. The state chairs and executive directors are not reflective of Howard Dean's base, and yet, he's formidable among even this group. Dean was accessible throughout the event, and he got a lucky break. When Leo Hindery dropped out, it opened the Saturday morning breakfast slot that Dean grabbed up. Dean had been slated for an event to be held at 4-7 PM Saturday, after when many would have already left Orlando. Dean's breakfast was by far the most attended, where he spent over an hour taking questions and answers. Also, I spoke with Jim Dean briefly after the event, Howard's Connecticut-based brother, and unsuccessfully prodded him about taking up an '06 primary challenge against a certain Senator.

Wellington Webb reflects the ASDC priority of gutting the centralized power of the DNC. Webb was far better in his 5-minute speech than the speech he delivered during his evening event on Thursday. Because the ASDC is Webb's base, it shouldn't be surprising that the well-known Vice Chair has a fair amount of support, but I was surprised, because his performance wasn't altogether impressive. Webb's got a base and is a serious candidate, but not likely to become a consensus alternative. If anything, he's more an outsider than is Dean.

[Chandler Stork]

1. Did Dean not declare himself a candidate

on Meet the Press yesterday? Or is this article not from today?

[quaoar]

2. The posting time on the story is

Mon Dec 13th, 2004 at 12:32:46 PM EST

[Chandler Stork]

3. Hmmm, color me confused, then.

[quaoar]

4. Perhaps Dean doesn't want to "officially" declare himself

a candidate until he knows he has the thing sown up.

[NYCGirl]

5. Maybe the guy who wrote that didn't see "Meet the Press" NT