Dean is front-runner to lead Demo Party

WASHINGTON — Howard Dean, whose late-night howl sealed the fate of a once promising presidential candidacy, emerged as the probable new leader of the Democratic Party Tuesday when a major rival dropped out after failing to gain a key labor endorsement.

Martin Frost, the former Texas congressman who lost his seat when his district was redrawn by Republican foes, had expected to win the backing of the AFL-CIO Tuesday, but union leaders instead opted not to endorse anyone.

Hours later, Frost dropped out of the race with a nod toward Dean as the likely winner. "The challenge ahead for Governor Dean will be to unite the party, rebuild the DNC, and win elections in every region of the country," said Frost, who was credited with turning around the finances of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee after the 1994 Republican sweep of Congress.

Frost, however, stopped short of endorsing Dean.

Both moves left Dean, a former Vermont governor and 2004 candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, with strong backing from state party chairs and a field of opponents that has dwindled from six on Saturday to just three Tuesday.

Dean's leading competitor, 37-year-old party organizer Donnie Fowler, made it clear in an interview Tuesday that he would not spend the days leading up to the DNC's Feb. 12 vote publicly challenging Dean.

'"The developments today have left the party with two agents of change," said Fowler, who combines South Carolina political roots with a Silicon Valley appetite for technology. "I'm not running against Dean, I'm running for the chairmanship."

Fowler, who rails against the "aristocracy" of Washington campaign consultants in his campaign speeches, added that DNC members have now "filtered out those for whom grassroots business is fashionable, and those who know what to do in the grassroots because they've been down there."

At a DNC caucus meeting in New York on Saturday, seven candidates stepped to the podium to make five-minute campaign speeches in the first hotly contested race for the chairmanship first since 1988. But by Monday, the Association of State Democratic Chairs had decided to throw its weight behind Dean, even though its executive committee had recommended Fowler.

At that point, former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb and former Ohio Democratic Party chairman David Leland dropped out.