Wide Open Race For DNC Chair

Some Favor Howard Dean As New Dem Boss, Others Anyone But Dean

(CBS)  By David Paul Kuhn,
CBSNews.com chief political writer

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With moderate Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack out of the running, the race to head the Democratic National Committee for the next four years remains wide open.

Considered the leading candidate – especially after an endorsement from incoming Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada – Vilsack told reporters Monday that while he was “honored" and "flattered," he "wanted to focus on his Iowa agenda.”

By bowing out, Vilsack “opened the door to a lot of people who will come out over the next couple months,” said Donna Brazile, a Democratic strategist who was Al Gore's campaign manager in 2000.

“There’s still word that former [Denver] Mayor Wellington Webb is interested, the former cable executive [Leo] Hindery is still working the phones, Congressman Martin Frost is working the phones. It remains to be seen.”

Early on, Brazile herself was mentioned as a possible candidate to head the DNC, but she said in an interview that she's "never been interested.”

Other possible candidates include Media Fund head Harold Ickes, former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk, New Democratic Network President Simon Rosenberg and former Sen. Jean Carnahan, D-Mo.

Current DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe's term ends this year. It remains possible that he could stay on, but Brazile thinks that's unlikely.

“Terry did the job that he was told he had to do," she said. “I think Terry will be able to walk away, having unified the party behind Senator Kerry, and also having put the party in its best shape ever.”

President Bush tapped Ken Mehlman, his campaign manager, to head the Republican National Committee next term. The energetic, always on-message Mehlman will be a tough opponent for the next Democratic boss.

Whomever the Democrats select, the new DNC chair will inherit a party with a deep bench but few visible stars, and with diminished national power following the Nov. 2 elections.

The White House and both houses of Congress remain under GOP control. The Democrats have also lost governorships, state legislatures and could be on the verge of losing hold on the traditionally Democratic industrial Midwest.

While the Democrats did compete dollar-for-dollar with Republicans in the presidential election, interviews with a dozen insiders since Election Day portray a party still unsure of its identity.

On one side is the moderate wing, now under the stewardship of Reid, a Mormon who opposes abortion except in the case of rape, incest or a threat to the mother's life. On the other is the liberal wing led by antiwar and pro-abortion rights presidential candidate Howard Dean.

Dean, the former governor of Vermont, remains the most mentioned candidate to head the DNC.

“[Dean] said, ‘I’m thinking about running,’" explained Steve Grossman, himself a former DNC chairman.

“As a grassroots guy, he’s got his ear to the ground," said Grossman. "I think there are variety of points of view at the DNC as to what makes the most sense. There are a lot of people who believe that Howard’s candidacy would be the best chance in revitalizing participatory politics and energizing communities of constituencies we need to get involved.”

But it appears there are just as many who do not back Dean.

Chuck Todd, the editor-in-chief of the inside political read “Hotline,” told CNN Monday that “while there is a Dean move, a Dean stronghold inside the DNC, there's also an anybody-but-Dean stronghold inside the DNC.”

Todd added: “I think that that's sort of now what's going on… a search for who's going to be the new anti-Dean candidate.”

Hotline polled 155 members of the DNC and Dean was the “consensus first choice among a plurality of voters, not a majority,” Todd explained. But in the head-to-head poll, Vilsack vs. Dean, Vilsack won.

To Todd, that indicates a strong anti-Dean contingent in the DNC. But with Vilsack out, a moderate Democrat to oppose Dean has yet to emerge.

“I just don’t think the momentum is going to be behind one person as of now,” Brazile said. “I think because the so-called favorite has dropped out, the party is going to look inside, a little bit more soul searching.”