Dean taps Gore associate in shake-up
Campaign manager Joe Trippi quits but pledges support
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Howard Dean met with campaign aides Wednesday in Burlington, Vermont.
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BURLINGTON, Vermont (AP) -- Democrat Howard Dean shook up his bid for the White House on Wednesday, replacing his campaign manager with a former Washington lobbyist tied to Al Gore.
In a further sign of distress, the one-time front-runner implemented cost-cutting measures as he looked ahead to a series of costly primaries and caucuses, asking staff to defer their paychecks for two weeks.
"I think you are going to see a leaner, meaner organization," Dean told reporters Wednesday night. "We had geared up for what we thought would be a front-runner's campaign. It's not going to be a front-runner's campaign. It's going to be a long, long war of attrition."
Dean said he wanted Roy Neel to take over office operations under the title of chief executive officer.
He said he asked campaign manager Joe Trippi to stay on as a strategist focused on media and Internet operations, but Trippi quit instead of accepting the demotion.
Other officials said Dean asked Trippi to remain as campaign manager, but Trippi believed he could not function effectively while reporting to Neel.
Dean would not discuss what he offered Trippi, other than that Trippi made the decision to go after he tried to talk him into staying.
Shock waves
Trippi's departure sent shock waves through the campaign, where he is a popular boss and something of an icon to the thousands of Internet-savvy supporters across the country.
Trippi, who helped fashion Dean's anti-establishment message, was replaced by the ultimate Washington insider just as the candidate sought to reaffirm his outsider's mantle.
Even aides who supported Neel's accession said they feared Trippi's departure would be a blow to staff morale and jeopardize Dean's Internet-driven fund-raising successes.
Dean publicly and privately expressed his determination to remain in the race.
At the same time, in a conference call with members of Congress who have endorsed him, he was told bluntly that finishing second was not good enough -- that he had to show he could win a primary.
"He said he understood," said one lawmaker involved in the call.
Dean's national campaign chairman, Steve Grossman, said the candidate must win a presidential primary in the next two weeks to keep even his most loyal donor base -- those giving modest amounts over the Web -- contributing enough to make him financially competitive.
The tumultuous events capped a swift slide for Dean, who was the campaign front-runner at the dawn of the election year, the man with money, momentum and a lead in the polls nationally and in most states.
But that was before he faded to third place in the Iowa caucuses on January 19, and dealt himself a further setback with an appearance before supporters that even aides conceded was overly animated and less-than-presidential.
Tearful departure
Democrats outside the campaign were surprised that Dean would make such a dramatic move in the middle of the primary race.
"It's the campaign's acknowledgment that things have gotten drastically off course," said Anita Dunn, who helped run Bill Bradley's failed 2000 campaign. "Often, when that happens you make a managerial change, no matter how well the manager was doing."
Trippi, who has a quarter-century of experience in Democratic politics, is widely credited with helping Dean build the campaign that transformed him from an asterisk in the polls to front-runner by the end of 2003.
Dean announced that Neel would take the new position during a staff meeting, but aides who were present said he did not mention Trippi's departure. Trippi then came in and tearfully told his staff that he was leaving while encouraging them to stay.
"Howard Dean is the guy who is going to fight for the country for real change and [I] hope people stick with him," Trippi said as he left campaign headquarters with his wife, Kathy Lash, who also worked for Dean.
"I'm out of the campaign, but I'm not out of the fight," he said. "We need to change America."
Trippi had been part of the staff faction that had urged Dean to focus on a few upcoming states that could be won, skipping all or most of the seven February 3 contests in favor of Michigan, Washington state and Wisconsin.
Dean said he wanted to continue to compete everywhere, although he said he would have a special focus on the delegate-rich states that come after February 3, such as Michigan.
"We're going to try everywhere, but what we are really looking at is the delegate count," Dean said.
Dean said he was deeply grateful to Trippi and hoped he could talk him into returning to the campaign. He credited Trippi with "revolutionizing the way people are brought in the democratic process."
"If it hadn't been for Joe Trippi, we wouldn't be where we are," Dean said.
Gore and Neel
Dean campaign officials said the move was a sign of former Gore's growing influence in the campaign.
Several of the officials said the 2000 Democratic presidential nominee had recommended that Neel play a larger role, but Dean denied Gore made the suggestion.
Neel, Gore's former senatorial and vice presidential chief of staff, served as chief executive of the U.S. Telecom Association in Washington before working on Gore's 2000 presidential campaign.
Before that, he was deputy chief of staff in the Clinton White House. He was named to head Gore's transition team in anticipation of the former vice president winning the White House.
Neel pledged to join Dean's campaign after Gore endorsed the former Vermont governor on December 9.
The decision to shake up the campaign was made in a series of discussions in Burlington -- on a day that Dean's rivals were already out campaigning for votes in the seven states that hold primaries and caucuses February 3. (Full story)
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