Dean Extends Reach to Keep Rivals at Bay

Not so many weeks ago, Howard Dean appeared to be headed for a coronation in frozen New Hampshire, conveniently close to his home state in both geography and, among its Democrats, progressive politics.

But now the onetime frontrunner for the party’s presidential nomination is urging his supporters to hold back other challengers pushing at the gates of the electoral palace. Sen. John F. Kerry has slammed his way through into a seemingly comfortable lead in polls, and Dean is fighting to hold off Sen. John Edwards and retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark.

Dean on Sunday worked hard at two events to reach out to women voters, who constitute a majority of those expected to vote in Tuesday’s primary. He also stopped twice to fire up union workers who had come to walk door to door and make phone calls for him.

“It’s not snowing. It’s not windy,” Dean told the American Federation of the State County and Municipal Employees at a breakfast gathering in Nashua. “It’s beautiful, even though it’s only about 5 degrees out. Knock on those doors. This is it!”

The urgency in the Dean campaign has been evidenced by the presence of the candidate’s wife, Judy, who Dean earlier had said he would not use as “a prop” on the campaign trail.

Judy Dean, a physician like her husband, was back in New Hampshire on Sunday, her second appearance of the week. And she had canceled her patients for today to continue campaigning.

Precinct walkers were also distributing 75,000 videotapes of the interview Dean and his wife gave last week to Diane Sawyer.

“When she is with him, it just provides a fuller picture of who this guy is,” said Karen Hicks, Dean’s state director in New Hampshire.

An overflow audience at a “Women for Dean” gathering on the campus of Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester seemed to want to fill in that picture.

When Dean entered beside his wife, the crowd responded with thunderous applause and a chant of “The doctors are in! ... The doctors are in!”

The Deans met at medical school in New York and operated a practice together for a decade in Burlington, Vt., before he became governor in 1991.

“I’d like to be with Howard more, but I also would like to be at home doing my job,” Judy Dean told an interviewer from WMUR, which will air a half-hour interview with the couple. “We’re trying to balance it out.”

Dean told the Manchester audience that “women’s issues” extended into a variety of arenas from the obvious -- such as abortion rights and child care -- to others that might not be so apparent -- such as increasing the minimum wage and providing support so small businesses can give employees health insurance.

Dean also said he would bring Vermont’s early child intervention plan, which offers social, health and education programs to new mothers, to the nation.

“We better do that in the whole United States of America or we will be funding a prison system that does not work,” he concluded.

Responding to a question, Dean said that he would rescind “gag rules” supported by President Bush that prevent health clinics that use federal funds from informing pregnant women that abortion is an option.

If Dean hadn’t proved winning enough, he may have scored a few more points with his closing remark before a liberal-leaning crowd at Dartmouth College. The moderator, Claire Shipman, asked Dean and two other candidates in attendance, Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman and Ohio Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich, when they thought a woman would be elected president.

In “2012,” Dean responded, without hesitation. “After I get done, Hillary will be president.”