Dean Campaigns in Maine in Effort to Stem the Kerry Tide

Howard Dean flew to Maine on Sunday. He sped from town to town, seven of them in all, asking voters to give him another look and not simply stamp Sen. John F. Kerry’s ticket to the Democratic presidential nomination one more time.

Dean’s trek through southeastern Maine netted him lots of good cheer, applause galore and earnest thanks from voters who said his candidacy had given them hope.

But if the former Vermont governor has learned anything in his run for president, it’s that the loud support of the few cannot trump the quiet conviction of the majority.

Dean was one of only two Democratic candidates -- the other being Dennis J. Kucinich -- who made his pitch directly to Maine voters before they cast their votes in caucuses Sunday.

But late in the day, Dean found himself again falling to Kerry, putting his primary and caucus losing streak at an even dozen, just three weeks after he was viewed as the man most likely to win the democratic nomination.

The candidate’s sprint across the snow-draped state could amount to his next-to-last stand before the Wisconsin primary, which he says will either reinvigorate or kill his candidacy.

Dean ended the night flying from Portland to Madison, Wis., saying he essentially would camp in the Badger State through the Feb. 17 primary.

Even his most loyal supporters in Maine betrayed the mixed emotions of the day -- thrilled to see their political hero but fearful their presidential dream may be slipping away.

Seth McMillan, a 30-year-old yoga studio owner in Oakland, population 5,900, thanked Dean for coming to a tiny firehouse where the town was holding its caucus.

Then McMillan looked Dean in the eye in the cramped firehouse conference room and posed a question that he clearly found unsettling: “What are you going to do if, if, I mean -- well, if you fail?”

Dean, standing by pictures of homes going up in flames, did not miss a beat. He said he would support anyone the Democrats nominate. That left McMillan grasping for some way to console his candidate. “I’d support you,” he offered, “the next time.”

Dean’s challenge as he stepped inside the auditoriums and meeting rooms was to get his audiences focused on his ideas and his track record.

Sunday, Dean asked Mainers to remember that he is the only Democratic candidate with experience as a chief executive.

He talked of balancing budgets 11 straight times as governor of Vermont, providing universal healthcare for children and the working poor, and enacting early-childhood programs, thereby making dramatic reductions in child abuse rates.

At all seven stops, Dean told voters that of the presidential candidates, he had offered the earliest and most consistent opposition to the war in Iraq and President Bush’s No Child Left Behind education legislation -- the other Democrats rising in opposition, he said, only when those policies ran into trouble.

“We need Democrats who will stand up when it matters, not just when it’s popular,” Dean told about 60 people huddled in the 13-degree cold outside the civic auditorium in Bangor. “Because that’s not the way you can convince voters we’ll stand up for them when it really counts.”

Dean was shadowed for much of the day by Kucinich, a congressman from Ohio. Both men did well in some of the towns where they spoke directly to voters. In tiny Oakland, Dean received 25 votes to Kerry’s 15. In Waterville, where he was introduced as the candidate “who gives us Bush-bashing for free,” Dean topped Kerry 123 votes to 92, followed by Wesley K. Clark with 28 and Kucinich, who also addressed the crowd, with 24. In Auburn, Kerry won narrowly, with 100 votes to Dean’s 93.

As Kerry, Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina and Clark of Arkansas battled over Tuesday’s Tennessee and Virginia contests, Dean was the only major candidate campaigning in Maine on Sunday.

But his mind was clearly on Kerry, the man he had been pursuing for three weeks.

As he waded into the crowd at the Bangor Auditorium, one couple told Dean he would win. Dean replied: “Let’s make sure. Let’s make Clark your second choice too.”

But even as he left the auditorium, Kerry’s shadow loomed again -- in Robert F. Kennedy Jr. No sooner was Dean out the door than admirers mobbed Kennedy, who told them that Kerry, a senator from Massachusetts, should be the next president.

Kerry had several other surrogates in the state, as well, including two congressmen from Massachusetts, his brother Cameron and his daughter Vanessa, a medical student at Harvard University.

Dean’s advisors said they would launch television advertisements today in Wisconsin, after nearly two weeks off the air for lack of cash. The first ad will introduce him as a doctor and governor who provided health insurance for many Vermonters, including prescription benefits for one-third of senior citizens.

Another TV spot will be chosen Sunday on Dean’s website.

Despite his frequent jabs at Kerry as the Washington insider who takes money from special interests, Dean said he hadn’t decided yet how aggressively to go after Kerry in his TV spots.

Dean’s admirers said they were keeping hope alive, despite the tough sledding. “I think he is better for the American people and for the world,” said Brian Adams of Bangor. “But I don’t think the American people are ready for him.”