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Decision day for Democrats in Wisconsin
Ahead in surveys, Kerry focuses on Bush; Edwards, Dean vow to stay in
MSNBC staff and news service reports
Updated: 8:01 a.m. ET Feb. 17, 2004
MILWAUKEE, Wisc. - Voters head to the polls in the Wisconsin primary on Tuesday, with Democratic front-runner John Kerry looking for a win that could cement his grip on the nomination to challenge President Bush in November.
Another Kerry win would also force reevaluations by leading rivals Sen. John Edwards and Howard Dean, both of whom vowed to stay in the race beyond Tuesday. Despite an internal campaign shakeup Monday, Dean told NBC's "Today" show Tuesday that he was still second in the running for delegates and in terms of recent fundraising, behind only Kerry.
In his last day campaigning in Wisconsin, Kerry focused heavily on job-creation plans, labeling Bush missing in action on the economy. He ridiculed the president for taking a trip to the Daytona 500 auto race in Florida at a time when the economy should have his undivided attention.
“We don’t need a president who just says, ’Gentlemen, start your engines,”’ Kerry said. “We need a president who says, ’America, let’s start our economy and put people back to work.”’
Edwards, for his part, said he would sharpen the differences he has with all of his rivals and argued that he was in the race for the long haul. He said it was not too late for a surge in polls that have given Kerry a wide lead in the latest primary test.
“It’s not too late because this primary process is going well into March,” Edwards said. “I want the voters to know what the differences are between us.”
The Democratic rivals swept across Wisconsin on the eve of a primary that has 72 delegates at stake, and could offer the last chance to blunt the momentum that Kerry has built in piling up 14 wins in the first 16 contests of the primary season.
Dean team in disarray?
As the campaign wrapped up, Dean was getting the heaviest attention, but it was not the sort that a candidate would want heading into an important election.
As he stumped doggedly across the state, Dean said national chairman Steve Grossman had left the campaign, and other aides speculated Grossman would enlist with Kerry. Grossman had told reporters earlier that Dean was likely to leave the race if he lost the Wisconsin primary, a view that Dean quickly disputed.
“He’s made clear in his on-the-record comments to the press he has another agenda at work now,” campaign manager Roy Neel said of Grossman.
For whatever the reason, the shake-up obscured Dean’s message on the eve of the primary in a state with a tradition of supporting liberals, mavericks and Washington outsiders — a state the former Vermont governor has said he badly needed to bounce back from a long string of losses.
The move was the second campaign shake-up in recent weeks in a Dean campaign that at one point was the presumptive front-runner, but has failed to win a single primary or caucus. Former campaign manager Joe Trippi was forced out earlier.
While it wasn’t clear whether Grossman left or was pushed, it didn’t matter ultimately.
“My response is, I’ll speak for the campaign,” Dean said.
Dean said he had hope of winning in Wisconsin but would stay in the race regardless. “I think it’s possible for us to do well even if we don’t win,” he said.
“... I think the campaign obituaries that some of you are writing are a little bit misplaced,” he told reporters.
Still, aides described Dean as torn between reaching a pragmatic conclusion that the campaign is coming to a close, and his emotional attachment to a race in which he’s been running for well over a year.
Edwards and trade issues
For his part, Edwards tried to sharpen the differences he has with both Kerry and Dean on trade issues, and said it would be easier to get his message out now that the Democratic field has shrunk to half the size it began with.
“Voters will get a better sense of who we are and what the differences are between us,” said Edwards.
Edwards has scheduled a fund-raiser in New York for Wednesday night and announced plans for a three-day swing through five states that will hold primaries on Super Tuesday, March 2.
He said trade could be a powerful issue in Wisconsin, where more than 74,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost, with many blaming the decline on companies shipping jobs overseas to take advantage of cheap labor.
Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich and activist Al Sharpton, the two other Democratic contenders, were trailing far behind Kerry, Edwards and Dean and getting little notice on the campaign trail.
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