Party Creates Folksy Unity With Peter, Dean and Kerry

There’s no question its high political season in Iowa.

Saturday night, former state Sen. Charlie Bruner was holding an annual holiday party for local Democrats at his home in Ames when a high-profile guest arrived: Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, followed by a gaggle of aides and reporters. As the Democratic presidential contender chatted with voters in the kitchen over pretzels, brownies and carrot sticks, another White House candidate blew through the door: former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean.

The room buzzed with anticipation as the two circled the party, giving each other a wide berth.

“I think they’re great house guests,” Bruner said.

On hand to plea for unity was activist and folksinger Peter Yarrow of the group Peter, Paul and Mary.

“Everybody here is involved in the process of being civically engaged, caring about the future of our country and realizing that we have a horror in Washington,” Yarrow said. “We should all honor each other.”

Yarrow, a Kerry supporter, then quieted the room and strummed out the civil rights tune, “Have You Been to Jail for Justice.”

Dean smiled and clapped appreciatively as Yarrow sang. But as he tried to slip out the back door in the middle of the song, the folksinger stopped him. “No, no,” Yarrow called out, as all eyes turned to Dean, “You can’t go until you hear the last verse.” Dean leapt back from the door and stood obediently until Yarrow finished.

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Keeping It ‘Real’

Meanwhile, the Kerry and Dean campaigns are arguing about a subject known to spark many a dispute -- money.

An article Friday in the Boston Herald quoted Kerry spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter as questioning the legitimacy of the more than $15 million the Dean campaign reported raising from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31. Cutter also said, “Our $2.5 million is real,” referring to the sum Kerry said he raised during the quarter.

Cutter did not elaborate on her comments.

The Dean camp fired back with a statement touting the former Vermont governor’s fundraising prowess.

“The levels of desperation of the Kerry campaign never cease to surprise us these days,” said spokesman Jay Carson. “We know that they missed their stated goal by a great deal and that Gov. Dean exceeded his by a great deal.... I have no idea what [the Kerry campaign is] talking about.”

The public can find out later this month, when the campaigns file their fundraising reports with the Federal Election Commission.

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Kerry vs. Dean, Round 2

Dean’s camp released a letter from farmer Chris Peterson, an Al Gore supporter in 2000, that criticized Kerry’s 1993 vote against flood relief that would have helped the farmer and others across the Midwest.

Kerry’s camp immediately shot back that the Massachusetts senator had backed the flood relief, while former Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.) opposed it.

“Memo to Dean research,” the Kerry statement read, “is your spell check key working?”

“We were setting the record straight,” said Kerry campaign spokeswoman Cutter of the release.

Dean staffers could not be reached for comment.

This isn’t the first time Peterson has been at the center of a political brouhaha. On the campaign trail in 2000, Gore called upon Peterson to stand up during a debate on Iowa public television to underscore Gore’s accusation that his challenger for the Democratic presidential nomination, former Sen. Bill Bradley of New Jersey, had opposed the aid for inundated farms. The public attack was misleading, the New York Times reported then, because Bradley had voted for the flood relief legislation but against an amendment to it.

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Who’s Counting?

$15.4 million: The amount of matching funds the federal government will award six presidential candidates this year.

$34 million: The amount the federal government awarded to eight presidential candidates in 2000.

$839,000: The amount in matching funds the federal government will give perennial presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche.

$78: The price of a 12-inch-tall Most Wanted Saddam Hussein doll that talks and dances.

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Compiled from staff, Web and wire reports by Times researcher Susannah Rosenblatt.