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The day before he was elected chair of the Democratic National Committee last week, Dean went to the leaders of different Democratic constituencies outlining an approach that will emphasize outreach to evangelicals and people of other faiths. His talks sought to distance himself and the Democratic Party from an image as a secular party out of touch with common Americans.

To a standing-room-only caucus of women Democratic leaders, Dean urged them to learn to talk and cooperate with people of faith. "People of faith are in the Democratic Party, including me," Dean declared.

In response to a question from CT, Dean said, "We are definitely going to do religious outreach. Even in my campaign I was interested in reaching out to evangelicals." Later, Dean tactfully expanded his remarks, noting "our religious outreach will not solely be to evangelical Christians but to Americans of all faiths."

Earlier in the week, congressional Democrats hosted a study session with University of California-Berkeley linguist George Lakoff on how to communicate the Democratic commitment to moral and religious values. The congressional Democrats also asked evangelical Jim Wallis, a veteran of many left-leaning causes, to teach Democratic press secretaries on how to reach evangelical audiences. Wallis told CT that he foresees a rising presence of evangelicals among Democratic leaders. Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives designated Congressman James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, the son of a minister, as their leader of a "faith working group.

To reach the voters alienated from the Democratic Party, Dean has been studying the way that the Christian Coalition built its movement, according to people who have spoken with the former governor. He promised that he would decentralize and fund the Democratic National Committee responsibilities into all 50 states. Many committee party leaders said that this promise played a big role in his election as party chairman.

The Democratic and Republican parties each consist of two parts. Most people know the parties by the personalities of their most famous elected leaders. U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy's name instantly invokes the party "Democratic." Behind the elected leaders stands party organizations that raise money, research issues, and plots strategies for elections. The leadership of this vote-getting machinery for the Democrats is the Democratic National Committee (DNC), which is made up of 447 members who elect a chairman every four years.

This year the race to lead the DNC took on the tone of a desperate struggle for survival against an onslaught of Republican victories in the fall elections. Howard Dean bounced back from a failed bid for the Democratic presidential nomination to win the DNC chairmanship against opposition from congressional and conservative Democrats who supported former Congressmen Tim Roemer (IN) or Martin Frost (TX) or another candidate. His opponents feared that many Americans perceive him as an erratic leftist promoter of a homosexual agenda.

Past fumbles in handling religion
At least two years ago Democrats started to worry that they were painting themselves into a small corner of a mostly religious America as the secularist party. Democrats started holding workshops on how they could win the support of religious voters. However, they couldn't quite master their lessons or demonstrate their sincerity in time for the 2004 elections.

The outgoing Democratic leader Terry McAuliffe declared that one of his outstanding accomplishments was the establishment of a Center of Faith at the DNC. However, the current confidential staff directory of the DNC doesn't list the name, director, or phone number of the Center. A DNC staffer says that a consultant who works out of her home handles the Center's work.

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February (Web-only) 2005, Vol. 49