Brownstein is Wrong

Dean Tries to Beat the Odds Against Outsiders

John Emerson, a Los Angeles investment banker who served as Hart's California campaign chairman in 1984, said that even with more money and volunteers than most insurgents, Dean will be challenged to build an effective political organization in all the states that vote early next year. The reason is that Dean would be unlikely to draw much support from elected officials or party interest groups, like labor.

Without such established networks, fielding effective local operations in so many states at once can be "crushing," even with money in the bank, said Eric Hauser, Bradley's communications director in 2000.

The conundrum for insurgent candidates is that the anti-establishment message that attracts grass-roots passion typically alienates almost all party leaders. And that hostility has carried a price for all outsider candidates since Carter.

What the media, including Brownstein at the LA Times hasn't yet realized is that Dean is not only getting money from the internet but also volunteers and organization.

Dean is more organized than any other candidate and smartly organized. Everything is linked online which is why everyday the campaign knows how much money he raised and where the events are and what parts of what states still need organizing. The alienation of the grassroots from the party insiders and the lackluster performance of the insiders the last several years has given an opening for a smart well-organized candidate to sweep new people into party positions.