Dean Criticizes Kerry Financing

Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean called Sen. John F. Kerry a “handmaiden of special interests” Saturday and said his fundraising practices make him no different from President Bush and other Republicans.

Dean seized on reports of the Massachusetts senator’s financial ties to lobbyists and corporations in several appearances during the day -- taking on the frontrunner with high-voltage rhetoric.

“Turns out we’ve got more than one Republican in the Democratic race,” the former Vermont governor told reporters traveling with him in Arizona. The state is one of seven that holds primaries or caucuses Tuesday.

Kerry rejected the allegations as angry outbursts from an opponent trying to regain his momentum. He mostly left his surrogates to respond to the charges, which sprang from newspaper reports about his Senate campaign finances.

The Dean-Kerry exchanges were the sharpest on a day when all of the top Democratic candidates jetted around, with Kerry’s rivals trying to find a place where they could break through against him.

Retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark told audiences in the Southwest that he can hold Bush “accountable” for national security failures, a statement he made after New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson introduced him in Spanish as “the next president of the United States.”

Sen. John Edwards got a somewhat more muted introduction from Richardson at another event, in Albuquerque, but voters greeted him more warmly than they had in recent days in Edwards’ native South Carolina.

Clark began his day by speaking to more than 300 veterans and others in Sierra Vista, Ariz., a largely Republican town near the Ft. Huachuca military post.

Many in the crowd said they had long supported Republicans but had re-registered as Democrats to vote for Clark.

“Three quarters of this crowd is Republican. I know them,” said Kay Duran, 86, who used to work at Ft. Huachuca as a civilian. “I never dreamed this many people would show up for a Democrat. This is really going to pay off for that man.”

Dean’s broadsides were further evidence of efforts to slow Kerry, who won the first two Democratic contests and who leads polls in many of the states that will vote Tuesday.

Linking Kerry to another Democratic candidate, Dean told reporters: “I’ve already said that I thought Wes Clark was a Republican, and now it turns out that John Kerry has the same financing habits” as a Republican. He called Kerry “no different” from Bush on that score. “I don’t think Democrats can win by running a candidate like that.”

The remarks seemed particularly well received by a crowd of 1,200 in downtown Seattle on Saturday afternoon. Caucuses will be held in Washington next Saturday.

“You guys better go out and win the caucus for me on Feb. 7,” Dean exhorted the crowd. “You can be as enthusiastic as you want here and hoop and holler, but it won’t do anything if it doesn’t translate into votes.”

“The criticism of Kerry was a significant escalation of Dean’s attacks and the first time he had compared the senator, a lifelong Democrat, to members of the GOP.

“You know, Gov. Dean has in the course of this campaign made a number of comments he’s had to apologize to other candidates for,” Kerry said, “and I would respectfully suggest that that may be just one more.”

As evidence that he fights special interests, Kerry cited his opposition to the Medicare prescription drug bill, drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and to a bankruptcy bill that would tighten rules requiring small debtors to pay their creditors.

“You’ll probably see some bankers that contributed to me,” he said, “but I stood up against them.”

Defending his political fundraising, Kerry cited his practice of declining contributions from political action committees, saying he limited contributions to $1,000 or less for his four Senate campaigns.

He called himself “the only United States senator currently serving in the Senate who has elected voluntarily” to run Senate campaigns without taking PAC money.

Democrats spent most of the day going after Bush before enthusiastic crowds.

In Kansas City, Mo., Kerry fired up an overflow crowd of Democrats in a hotel ballroom with an acid denunciation of the president and a pledge to send him back to Texas “and say, mission accomplished.”

The lanky Kerry jabbed his fists in the air and swiveled his hips as he bounded onstage to the O’Jays tune “Love Train” in a ballroom stuffed with more than 700 followers, many straining to see him from behind cordons set up behind tall risers.

The crowd, waving pompoms and placards, was peppered with Kerry’s usual brigades of firefighters and military veterans. But most were ardent partisans hungry to see a frontrunning campaign they believe could unseat Bush.

“There isn’t any energy here, is there?” Kerry joked as cheers rained on him. “They can hear you all the way in Karl Rove’s office,” he added, referring to the president’s top political advisor.

Signs of Kerry’s momentum in Missouri, which has more delegates at stake (74) than any other state Tuesday, were everywhere. Polls show him with a large lead over his nearest rival, Edwards.

A leading newspaper, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, endorsed Kerry in an early release of an editorial printed for today’s editions. “He has demonstrated both toughness and judgment in three decades of public service,” the newspaper wrote.

Former Missouri Gov. Roger Wilson, appearing with Kerry, predicted he would win easily. “I think it’ll be double digits,” Wilson said in an interview.

Kerry got more good news Saturday, when Michigan Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm endorsed him. The state, which holds its primary next Saturday, is one location where Dean hopes to stop Kerry’s surge.

Today, Kerry will travel to Fargo, N.D., for a rally in a state that will hold caucuses Tuesday. Clark will be back in Arizona to watch the Super Bowl in Flagstaff. Edwards planned five stops in South Carolina, his native state.

Looking down the calendar, to the Feb. 17 Wisconsin primary, Dean planned to start the day in Milwaukee.

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Times staff writers Scott Martelle and Eric Slater contributed to this report.