Demo courted Gore for a year

WASHINGTON — Al Gore was in Tokyo on Friday and Howard Dean was in a van in Iowa, and for 45 minutes, their cell phone conversation was not particularly extraordinary, according to people close to both politicians.

Dean had sent Gore a draft of a foreign policy speech that Dean is to deliver next week in California, and Gore was calling back with a few suggestions. Then, at the end of their chat, Gore dropped the bombshell: "I've decided I want to endorse you," he told Dean.

As impulsive as Gore's move appeared, the reality is that behind the scenes, Dean had aggressively courted the former vice president for more than a year. He complimented him on speeches, sought out his advice, chewed over ideas and even stopped once in Nashville, Tenn., where he spent 90 minutes with Gore and his wife, Tipper, to talk about the campaign.

While the quest for Gore's blessing was off the public radar, it became a priority for the Dean campaign, particularly as centrist Democrats spread the view that the party establishment wanted to stop Dean, fearing he could not beat President Bush.

One Dean aide said he had "worked practically non-stop" on the endorsement with the Gore staff since September. Another Dean staff member said that Dean and Gore aides frequently discussed the matter over martinis. "It's all kind of like, when is your boss going to endorse my boss kind of thing," that aide said.

At the same time, the campaign encouraged Dean supporters to write to Gore, among other Democratic figures, including former President Bill Clinton, to seek their endorsements. A Dean aide said that at an Oct. 1 "Meetup" of 50,000 Dean supporters in more than 700 cities around the country, 2,500 people wrote hand-written letters to Gore asking him to endorse Dean.

Gore, said his associates, loved the attention.

"Al Gore has been watching Gov. Dean's campaign pretty closely," said Roy Neel, a longtime Gore friend and aide who was planning Gore's aborted transition to the presidency in 2000. "They have shown not only respect but substantive interest in Al and Tipper."

Gore did not get such attention from other Democrats in the race. They thought he would stay neutral through the primaries or, if he endorsed anyone, he would pick Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, the man whom Gore had plucked in 2000 to be a heartbeat away from the presidency.

An aide to Lieberman said the senator did not expect Gore to endorse anyone but figured that if he did, the endorsement would go to Lieberman. Lieberman, he said, had asked Gore for it.