''Howard Dean Rallies Utah Democrats''

"Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean rallied party loyalists Saturday, declaring that Democrats can regain prominence in offices from the school board to presidency.

The former Vermont governor, who made an unsuccessful run in 2004 for the Democratic presidential nomination, said Democrats can recover from a GOP clubbing on the national stage by taking command of issues including health care.

“In my state everybody has health insurance, and our per capita income probably is not much more than yours,” he said. “We did it without raising taxes, and you can do that without raising taxes. We can do that as the richest economy in the world.”

Dean was introduced by his cousin, Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon, a Democrat who showed he can win in Republican territory. Dean doesn't expect Utah, which President Bush carried with about 70 percent of the vote last fall, to support a Democrat in the next presidential election. But he said Democrats can still improve their standing throughout the country.

Dean spoke to repeated applause in a 285-seat auditorium at Westminster College with overflow crowds filling two other rooms. It gave him a total audience of more than 500 people.

The 56-year-old Yale-educated doctor is known for making provocative remarks – he most recently drew fire for depicting Republicans as “pretty much a white, Christian party” with many who “never made an honest living.” Those and other comments have other leading Democrats saying Dean doesn’t speak for the party.

But some loyalists found Dean’s remarks subdued in heavily Republican Utah.

“It wasn’t as high-key as I would have expected,” said Rudi Kohler of Heber City, vice chairman for Wasatch County Democrats. “I would have expected a rallying cry. He covered all the points, but he didn’t have the enthusiasm he showed in his campaign.”

Dean tried to appeal to Utah sentiments by boasting about his endorsements from the National Rifle Association as Vermont governor from 1991-2003. He was against only “shooting deer from your car.”

He urged Utah Democrats to help fortify the party’s coffers by pledging $20 a month for a Democratic “bond.” The DNC raised more than $28 million through the first half of this non-election year for federal offices – a pace lagging the Republican Party by half.

Dean, who was on a swing through the West, added that Democrats can reclaim the moral high ground on health care, education and keeping the nation out of debt.

“One of the things we’re going to change, the Democrat Party, is we are not going to let Republicans tell people what the Democratic Party stands for. We’re going to leave that to ourselves,” Dean said.

Dean drew some of his biggest applause by defining the Democratic position on abortion.

“I’m tired of Republicans telling us we’re pro-abortion. I served on the board of Planned Parenthood for five years. I don’t know anybody who’s pro-abortion,” he said. “Most people in this country would like to see the abortion rate go down. That includes Democrats and Republicans. The difference between the parties is that we believe a woman makes that decision about her health care – and they believe Tom Delay makes it.”-from the AP story on KUTV.