Dean & Co. Ponder Closing Up Shop

Even as he campaigns doggedly across Wisconsin, a conflicted Howard Dean is weighing how -- and whether -- to abandon his presidential run in the face of another likely defeat, senior campaign aides said Sunday night.

The former Vermont governor is torn between recognition of his campaign’s grave circumstances and the allegiance he feels toward supporters who have urged him to soldier on, according to several campaign insiders. Opinion polls suggest he may lose badly.

In a further blow to his beleaguered candidacy, Dean campaign chairman Steve Grossman said Sunday night that he planned to support Sen. John F. Kerry after Wisconsin’s primary in the hopes of serving as a bridge-builder between the front-runner and the former governor.

“I don’t consider this anything more than a commitment to making sure that we have the best possible results in November,” Grossman said in a phone interview. “I want to do everything possible to help the presumptive nominee, John Kerry, and Howard Dean.”

In response, a Dean campaign spokesman released a statement thanking Grossman for his service.

Surveys have shown the Massachusetts senator, who is the Democratic front-runner, with a commanding lead in Wisconsin, and Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina vying strongly for a second-place finish ahead of Dean.

Advisors said Sunday that there is near unanimity among campaign strategists that Dean should drop out if he fails to manage a surprise victory Tuesday.

Summing up their sentiment, one said, “We got in this to win, and we’re not going to win.”

But that aide and others said the former governor has not yet come to that conclusion and continues to debate whether he can still campaign in some form -- even if it consists of nothing more than making a handful of cameo appearances in the states that vote March 2. Among them are giants California, New York and Ohio.

“I’m not sure he even knows how he’s going to do it, if he does do it,” a top strategist said.

Advisors who favor Dean’s exit from the race said they were loath to push the candidate too hard since, as one of them put it, “He’d probably just do the opposite.”

Another top strategist said of Dean, “He feels like both for his supporters and himself he has a commitment to hang in there a little big longer. He’s not naive about the situation. This guy’s feet are planted firmly on the ground.... But he says, ‘I’ve gone this far. Maybe I should let my voice be heard another two weeks.’ ”

Dean has repeatedly changed his public stance about his plans, first sending an e-mail to supporters stating that a loss in Wisconsin would “put us out of this race.” Then he told reporters last week that he would continue campaigning, whatever the results Tuesday.

A senior aide said Sunday night that Dean had been “going back and forth daily” on whether to stay in the contest.

But he said the candidate could decide to drop out if Tuesday’s results are particularly discouraging.

Fresh speculation about Dean’s intentions was fueled earlier in the day when Grossman told Associated Press that he thought Dean had accepted the inevitability of Kerry’s victory and was all but resigned to quitting the race after Tuesday night.

But Dean adamantly denied that an hour later.

“We’re in, no matter what,” he told Wisconsin Public Television.

Those close to Dean dismissed Grossman’s comments, calling the campaign chairman “off the reservation” and suggesting that he was trying to curry favor with Kerry, for whom he worked as chairman on his 1996 Senate race.

Another indignantly said the statement was “Grossman’s way of trying to put the governor in a box.”

In a phone interview late Sunday, Grossman said his comments were not intended to push Dean out of the race.

“Anybody who knows Howard Dean knows that Howard Dean is going to do what he believes is not only best for his candidacy but also best for this movement he has created,” Grossman said.

In an interview on a Milwaukee television station, Dean blamed the “confusion” on “people writing the stories that don’t know what they’re talking about. We’re not dropping out after Tuesday. Period.”

The turmoil reflected how both Dean and his aides are agonizing over what could be the death throes of his once white-hot campaign.

His staffers “are all giving him space,” said one of his longest-serving strategists. “We’re going to let Howard Dean make this decision.”

For now, Dean has no campaign events planned after Tuesday appearances in Wisconsin.