"My interview with Howard Dean"

Kari Chisholm (Blue Oregon):

A few minutes ago, I had an opportunity to interview the chairman of the Democratic Party, Governor Howard Dean. He'll be in Portland on Monday night, headlining a grassroots fundraiser that will support the 50-State Strategy.

RSVP and buy your tickets online here.$50 general admission, $25 students.

It was a short interview, but I had a chance to ask all of my top questions - and hopefully a few that are interesting to you. We talked about the 50-State Strategy, Gordon Smith, Greg Walden, Al Gore, Vote-by-Mail, and the presidential race.

But first, Doctor Dean had to give me a little personal advice about my family's impending arrival - "Be sure to get plenty of sleep, because when that baby comes, you're not getting any for a while".

That was a bit surreal, so I moved quickly to the politics. I didn't get a chance to record it, so these answers are paraphrased from my notes:

Q: Why are you coming to Oregon on Monday?

Dean: Oregon is a state that is the quintessential grassroots state - because of vote-by-mail. We already have 159 people in our neighbor-to-neighbor leadership program. In that program, which we'll kick off on November 3rd with house parties across the country, people agree to talk three times to 25 neighbors, and recruit more leaders into the program. That's how we'll talk to every single American that has a remote possibility of voting for the Democrats.

Q: Obviously, the story of the year in Oregon is Senator Gordon Smith and the campaign to defeat him. As Smith has been working to remake his image, the state party has been doing a great job on the truth squad at StopGordonSmith.com. From your perspective, why is this seat a top priority nationally in 2008?

Dean: This is a top priority for the Democrats. Gordon Smith, regardless of how he votes on specific issues, has one crucial vote. He supports Senator Mitch McConnell as the Minority Leader for the Republicans. Senator McConnell is killing every Democratic initiative.

On Iraq, on health care, on everything, Mitch McConnell and Gordon Smith are standing in the way. No matter what he says about it, Gordon Smith is standing in the way of us getting out of Iraq - through his support for Republicans in Washington D.C.

Q: I'd like to talk about your run-everywhere, contest-every-seat theory. In 2006, in Oregon's 2nd CD, Congressman Greg Walden easily won re-election with 65% of the vote. Some argue that may be as good as it gets for Democrats in that district. Why does it make sense to continue to contest it - and spend arguably scarce resources on campaigns that seem to be sure losers?

Dean: There are two things we need to do in that district. We have to communicate Greg Walden's record. I'm guessing that the majority of people in that district do not agree with Greg Walden's attack on the children's health care program. If more people knew about his record, they wouldn't be as enthusiastic about him.

We also need to build for the long term. It's not about running in every office, it's about running where there can be good wins. In Eastern Oregon, we need to run Democrats for school boards, for county commissions, for state legislative seats. Those are easier to pick up, because there can be more personal contact with voters, and so they're easier to win.

Q: So maybe we shouldn't be running in the 90/10 districts. How do you make the determination about where to run?

Dean: You do spend time in the 90/10 districts. Because when you get 'em to 80/20, that's 10% more people voting for Democrats. But folks in Oregon can make the decision for themselves about where to run. Our job at the national party is to make sure they've got the capacity to run.

Q: In Oregon, we vote by mail. The academic studies vary, but most Democrats who work campaigns here believe that it pushes turnout among working class voters up by about 10% - because those are the folks that can't take time off to vote, they're working double-shifts, etc. Do you support vote-by-mail nationally to push turnout up?

[On the jump, his answer on vote-by-mail, the presidential race, and Al Gore's Nobel Prize...]

Dean: I vigorously support vote-by-mail. Oregon is always in the top five in turnout. Vote-by-mail is a terrific way to get people to vote. Look, Republicans want less people to vote. Democrats want more people to vote. This is a Democratic country, and the more votes that are cast, the better it is for America.

Q: I know you won't endorse any particular candidate, but tell me what you think about the Democratic presidential candidates, and what you think abot the Republican field?

Dean: I'm very happy about our candidates. Our field looks like the rest of America, especially if you're under 30 - different races, different ethnicities. Their field looks like the power structure of the 1950s, and they talk like it's the 1850s. The unspoken difference is pretty clear.

And of course, the differences on Iraq, on health care, on the environment -- our candidates are so much more in tune with where the country is.

Q: Yeah, it's hard to believe. Four years ago, much less 30 years ago, we wouldn't have imagined that out of our top four candidates there would be an African-American, a Latino, and a women.

Dean: It's extraordinary. That's the future of America. The Republicans are afraid of the future. They wouldn't participate in the Latino debate, they wouldn't participate in the Tavis Smiley debate, they didn't even want to participate in the YouTube debate until they got shamed into it. The Republicans are not a party that's comfortable with the future of America.

Q: Let's talk about Al Gore, his Nobel Prize, the Inconvenient Truth. What does this mean for addressing global warming as an issue?

Dean: Al Gore is an extraordinary person. I can't think of anybody recently who has taken on a major issue and put it on the forefront of public policy around the world. He well-deserves the Nobel Prize for doing that. And that's a huge difference between Democrats and Republicans. Democrats have embraced the fight against global warming. And the Republicans are having to grudgingly admit that it might exist. They're simply not suited to leading American into the future.

And my ten minutes were up. I'm looking forward to seeing Governor Dean on Monday night. I hope you'll be there.

Howie P.S. Hillary is in Seattle on Monday, as well, so I guess Howard won't be at The Maggies with her. And it looks like he'll be wearing his flag pin.