Howard Dean Stepping Down as Chair of DNC

Dean Prepares To Step Down As DNC Chair

This was expected, Gov. Dean had previously said that he would only serve one term as chair of the Democratic National Committee. And by tradition, President-elect Obama (I love writing that) will choose who he wants to be head of the DNC.

Howard Dean deserves all our our thanks for the bang up job he did. He leaves behind an empowered DNC that has set fund raising records and a Democratic party that has increased in size by hundreds of thousands of people. His 50-State Strategy allowed the Democratic Party to take the majority in the House by capitalizing on the unpopularity of the Iraq War in 2006 and take the majority in the Senate in 2008 by capitalizing on the economic crisis. The 50-State Strategy wasn't the only reason for these gains of course. The underlying unrest in the country was the ultimate cause. However, by implementing the 50-State Strategy Dean and the DNC had people on the ground in the Red States that were already building organizations that could immediately go to work when the opportunity appeared. (Of course Democracy for America helped by training thousands of people to be candidates, managers and staff to give the Dems a pool to pull from.)

If we go back to 2004, Dean was not the pick of Democratic insiders to be the DNC chair. The net roots and the everyday Democrats forced his appointment and gave him the chance to try out his strategy. So, in reality we have the Deaniacs, the net roots, and the grass roots Democrats to thank for winning the majority in both houses of Congress. Suck on that James Carville, Terry McCauliffe and your ilk!



I'm looking forward to seeing where Gov. Dean goes now. Will he get offered a position with Obama? Will he jump into Democracy for America? Or will he take some time off? I'm hoping he dives in somewhere, because even with the gains of the last four years we still need strong, smart and capable people of integrity like Howard Dean to help us get the country back on its feet.



No matter what your do Gov. Dean, thank you. Thanks from a grateful nation and personal thanks from me for kicking me in the ass back in 2004 and inspiring me to get involved.