Iowa's Harkin Endorses Dean

Jan. 9, 2004 -- Continuing his sweep of marquee Democratic names, Howard Dean has won the backing of Iowa's popular Democratic senator, Tom Harkin, whose well-oiled political operation and personal appeal make his endorsement the envy of the former Vermont governor's Iowa caucus rivals.

"One candidate rose to the top as our best shot to beat George W. Bush and to give Americans the opportunity to take our country back," Harkin said today before a loud and large crowd at Dean's Iowa headquarters. "That person is Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont."

The endorsement came at the end of what was arguably the toughest week the Dean campaign has yet faced. Rival campaigns unleashed attacks on his tax policies and television networks ran stories featuring past Dean comments calling the Iowa caucuses "dominated by the special interests."

Couldn’t Have Come at a Better Time

A Dean aide acknowledge Harkin's endorsement could not have come at a better time for the campaign,but more than one aide insisted the endorsement was not a done deal late Thursday. They said they had been ledto believe that Harkin would tell them, one way or the other, next week.

Harkin had publicly praised Dean for weeks, and had strongly hinted to top Dean aides that he wanted to endorsethe former Vermont governor. There are ties that bind the two camps. Dean communication director Tricia Enright held thesame job for Harkin. And Terry Lierman, Dean's national finance co-chairman and Washington adviser, is closeto the Iowa senator.

Harkin met Thursday with top officials from the Iowa AFL-CIO, where, sources said, he was reassuredby many Iowa labor leaders in private conversations that they would not object to a Dean endorsement. Buthe did not tell them what they decided.

Two sources close to the campaign say that a prominent Dean supporter who knows Harkin well called the senatorlast night to discuss the politics of a Dean endorsement.

"As of early this morning, I got the sense that the thing was still unsettled," said a Dean aide in Burlington, Vt.

Harkin told Dean he'd won his endorsement in a phone call late Thursday night.

A Series of Big-Name Endorsers

The timing of the endorsement — late on a Friday on a rare day when Dean was out of the caucus state — is unusual and led aides to Dean's strongest Iowa rival, Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri, to question the motivation.

"He's had this endorsement in the pipeline for a while now," said Steve Murphy, Gephardt's campaign manager. "He's grasping at straws from the damage from the continued gaffe-a-day revelations that indicate that Howard Dean is not the best candidate to take on George W. Bush."

Dean's backers counter that the fact that the insurgent candidate has won the backing of his party's biggest names speaks for itself.

"You now have [former Vice President Al] Gore, you have [former New Jersey Sen. Bill] Bradley, you have [New Jersey Gov. Jim] McGreevey, you have Harkin," Gerry McEntee, president of the American Federation of State and County Municipal Employees, told ABCNEWS. "You have individuals covering literally the whole spectrum of the Democratic Party."

Splitting the Union Support

McEntee's own endorsement of the former Vermont governor last fall caused a stir and a split in organized labor, which was widely expected to get behind the Gephardt candidacy. The divisions remain wide and very visible, with more than 20 of the nation's industrial unions lined up behind the Missouri congressman and a trio of powerful service-sector unions siding with Dean.

The labor backing gives Gephardt organizational strength, which Dean aides say they are not certain they can counter. The campaign has spent a significant amount of money training its supporters, most of whom have never participated in the caucus process before, and Dean aides say they are confident their young professional core of supporters will turn out for the caucuses on Jan. 19.

The question is whether those undecided Iowa Democrats will opt for Gephardt's steady hand, especially with the drumbeat of news stories portraying Dean as wet behind-the-ears.

"Harkin's endorsement may re-assure some of the undecideds," a Dean aide said this afternoon.

McEntee agreed.

"I think that Dean was on his way and there still were some mountains to climb in Iowa," he said. "But … the leadership and the popularity of somebody like Tom Harkin, who the Democrats in Iowa have followed for many, many years, is a tremendous help and really puts him over the top."

Not so fast, say Gephardt's union backers.

"The special interests that Howard Dean says dominate the Iowa caucuses are the same special interests that get Ton Harkin elected to the Senate and they are the same special interests that are behind Dick Gephardt for President," said Don Kaniewski, political director for the Laborer's International Union. "Dick Gephardt will win the Iowa caucus."

ABCNEWS' Marc J. Ambinder contributed to this report.