DEAN MACHINE | The Stranger

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DEAN MACHINE
Upstart Presidential Candidate Howard Dean is No Outsider in Washington State
by Sandeep Kaushik



In recent weeks, the race for the Democratic presidential nomination has been increasingly cast as an outsider vs. insider battle--pitting insurgent bad boy Howard Dean, supposedly running as a bomb-throwing revolutionary bent on overthrowing the Democratic Party power elite, against a clubby party establishment candidate, most likely Massachusetts Senator John Kerry. In Washington State, however, it's not an insider vs. outsider race. Both men have appeal with grassroots Democratic activists and state party insiders.

While it provides a compelling narrative for the national press, much of the outsider vs. insider characterization doesn't fit locally. As Betty Means, a local party activist and Dean campaign organizer, told an Internet-organized gathering of Dean supporters in Seattle in early July: "In a lot of states Howard Dean is running against the party, but not in Washington."

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