Dean cancels Columbia visit; GOP cashes in

Dean cancels Columbia visit; GOP cashes in

Posted on Wed, Jun. 29, 2005

JIM DAVENPORT

Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Howard Dean was a no-show for a state Democratic Party fund raiser Wednesday after bad weather in Philadelphia kept the Democratic National Committee chairman grounded.

But Dean's absence didn't stop state Republicans from screaming all the way to the bank.

"The weather just made it impossible to get down there," DNC spokesman Luis Miranda said. Dean is committed to help the state party raise money and grow and he will reschedule the visit, Miranda said.

Lachlan McIntosh, the party's executive director, said $5,000 in Internet donations had come in for the event. Plans had called for around 300 people to show up at the minimum $50-per-person event, generating at least $15,000 more.

When word came that Dean's plane wouldn't be off the ground in time to make it to Columbia, the party sent out a note saying it would be refunding money instead of putting it in the bank.

"Unfortunately, rain and travel delays have prevented me from attending tonight's fund-raiser with the South Carolina Democratic Party, but nothing has dampened my enthusiasm for building the party so that we can elect Democrats in South Carolina," Dean said in a statement released after he canceled his trip.

Dean has been stirring interest at the state level and has reinvigorated efforts to reach people who give small donations to political causes and candidates. Dean can keep those people engaged and interested as the 2006 contests looming, said Furman University political science professor Jim Guth.

"Our commitment to the South Carolina party is clear, which is why the DNC has included it in our most recent round of investments in state parties," Dean said

While Democrats waited for the former presidential candidate, the state GOP held a Dean scream contest in anticipation of Dean's arrival. A week ago, the party sent out a flier inviting people to a "No-show send Howard home rally" and garnered $22,000 in contributions, said Scott Malyerck, the state GOP executive director.

"We hope Howard Dean comes back every month," Malyerck said.

The state GOP's scream-off was intended to poke fun at Dean, whose attempt at a troop-rallying "yeah" after the 2004 Iowa caucus became the most laughed about moment of the campaign. Dean lost the next 16 contests, including a next-to-last showing in South Carolina a couple of weeks later.

The scream-off drew a handful of high school and college Republicans who were judged on "lack of poise in appearance" and "extent of angry, insane ranting."

Contestants had to repeat Dean's cry that his campaign was "going to South Carolina and Arizona and North Dakota and New Mexico. We're going to California and Texas and New York, and we're going to South Dakota and Oregon and Washington and Michigan. And then we're going to Washington, D.C. to take back the White House - yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

Richard Hahn, a Dreher High School student, won the contest - embellishing Dean's itinerary by adding Canada and Puerto Rico as campaign trail stops.

The contest didn't impress McIntosh, who said it is time for Republicans to "stop screaming and start trying to lead again."

But not all the state Democrats support some of Dean's recent comments.

He recently said the Republican Party is "pretty much a white, Christian party" and said many Republicans "never made an honest living." It prompted Democratic Chairman Joe Erwin to write to Dean and complain.

"I'm trying to recruit white Christians for the Democrat Party, and we are recruiting - white Christians and African-American Christians and people of all faiths and races," Erwin said at the time. "We don't need to ostracize anybody."

For South Carolina Republicans, "Dean is a gift from heaven," Guth said.