Queens for Dean
By Karl-Thomas Musselman
No, I'm not talking about Byron or I, I'm talking about the Queens Democratic Party which looks set to endorse Howard Dean tomorrow...
via CRAIN'S
The Queens Democratic Party is preparing to endorse Howard Dean for president on Tuesday, insiders say.
With one of the strongest party organizations in the state, the Queens Democrats' endorsement will carry with it the support of 45 elected officials.
The move is a blow to supporters of Gen. Wesley Clark, who have been soliciting Queens district leaders, without success, to run as delegates to the Democratic National Convention. Mr. Clark visited party headquarters early this month, when party boss Thomas Manton hosted a breakfast for him.
This should not be underestimated, as this article gives a hint to how this group gets behind their endorsements and delivers the votes for them.
This news comes fresh off the other news that the Dean Campaign picked up the endorsements of yet two more Congressonial Representatives, Congresswoman Nydia M. Velázquez, from the tri-boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan, and Congressman Joseph Crowley, from New York's 7th district. That would bring up the total of Congressonial endorsements to 14, with a number of them in just the last two weeks.
One other note, Gwen Graham daughter of Sen. Bob Graham who dropped out of the 2004 race months ago, has now joined the Dean campaign as "National Surrogate and Southern Regional Advisor".
This type of action may be fortelling the possibility that others are seeing Dean as being more than just a frontrunner, and more or less the presumptive nominee. That's also why the other 8 running have been picking up in their attacks on every issue as shown in the Iowa debate tonight. Granted, there are many questions that remain and Iowa is still 2 months away, but one must not discount recent happenings.
Posted by Karl-Thomas Musselman at November 25, 2003 12:50 AM
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The Queens party endorsement is actually very predictable due to internal politicking, especially in lieu of Crowley's endorsement. Tom Manton, the party boss, held Crowley's current House seat for quite some time before stepping down in 1998 to run things back home; Crowley is Manton's political protege and friend. NYC Democratic organizations are driven by relationships like that (which, by the way, are often rife with corruption), and by the notion of getting behind whomever seems to be set to win. So its no surprise that by getting a few key individuals to "embrace the inevitable," the entire organization fell into line.
