WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Vermonters to Hit the Road with Candidate Dean

Vermonters to Hit the Road with Candidate Dean

Governor Howard Dean will be out of office on Thursday, as his 11 year tenure comes to an end.

Dean's focus will now turn full time to his run for the Presidency. Dean has been out of state dozens of times already, visiting states like Iowa and New Hampshire. But now that he has more time on his hands, it won't necessarily effect his travel schedule.

"That depends really on the rhythm of the campaign as much as it does being in or out of government," Dean says. "There's not a lot of travel over holidays because people don't like to be campaigned at during holidays. But certainly I'm going to be on the road an awful lot."

Dean will need to be on the road a lot, because he trails high profile hopefuls like John Kerry and Dick Gehpardt in name recognition and money. Dean hopes to make up for that through his grassroots campaign that he is patterning after previous Presidential bids.

"I like Gary Hart's 1984 campaign," Dean says, "of course, Jimmy Carter's 1976 campaign is the one we've probably taken the most from, John McCain's campaign was a great campaign."

And now Vermonters will become an integral part of the Dean campaign. Dean will draw on his popularity as Governor to spread his Presidential message, by bringing Vermonters on the road with him.

"We will almost certainly send busloads of Vermonters to Iowa and New Hampshire and maybe to South Carolina" Dean says. "I was in Bennington Saturday and there were some people down there who wanted to go to Iowa, and I think that's very effective, Jimmy Carter did that. People like the idea of having people from your home state go into the states that you're working in and talk about you."

Dean says anyone is welcome to come on the bus trip. Those volunteers will go door to door for the governor, and even make campaign speeches on his behalf.

Mark Bosma - Channel 3 News