Feb 28 2004
Confused?
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who has kept a low profile since pulling out of the presidential race last week, said that he will lay out his plans for a new grass-roots organization focused on issues such as universal healthcare and campaign finance reform March 18.
Meanwhile, Dean’s former campaign manager, Joe Trippi, has proceeded with his own organization — ChangeForAmerica.com — to promote the principles of Dean’s insurgent candidacy.
It remains unclear whether Trippi’s nascent group will eventually merge with the group that the former governor is putting together.
“We’re committed to Gov. Dean and helping him,” Trippi said in an interview. “Whether that turns out to be an official thing, I don’t know.”
Dean spokesman Jay Carson said that the former governor sees the two efforts as “strong complements to one another.”
Dean made his first public appearance Thursday since dropping out of the race Feb. 18, thanking more than 500 supporters at a buoyant yet bittersweet rally at a hotel near Yale University.
“You have revitalized politics,” an upbeat Dean told people assembled in the ballroom of the Omni Hotel. “A lot of times people give up…. You can’t afford to do that, because we are fortunate enough to live in a country where politics really matters. And politics from now on is going to be ours.”
Dean asked all of his supporters to remain involved in his new organization, and to rally behind the eventual Democratic nominee. He made no reference to the new group being organized by his former campaign manager.
I kind of think the two organizations, if indeed their are two organizations, will eventually become one. If there are two, my plan is to fully support both of them. Both of them will be doing things in which I strongly believe.
