The Honorable Carol Moseley Braun
Braun to drop out of race, will endorse Dean
By Jill Lawrence, USA TODAY
DES MOINES — Former Illinois senator Carol Moseley Braun plans to drop out of the Democratic presidential race today and endorse Howard Dean, sources close to the Dean campaign said Wednesday.
Former Ill. Sen. Braun will drop out of the presidential race and endorse front-runner Howard Dean, campaign officials said Wednesday.
By Charlie Neibergall, AP
Dean and Braun are scheduled to appear together in Carroll, Iowa, where Dean is campaigning for Monday's Iowa caucuses, which begin the nomination season. Braun will campaign for Dean three to four days a week, starting Saturday in South Carolina.
The high-profile endorsement comes as the race here is tightening and Dean, a former Vermont governor, appears to be losing some ground in tracking polls. Meanwhile, MSNBC reported Thursday that it is now Sen. Jon Kerry with the slim lead according to its latest polls.
It also comes four days after a debate in which rival Al Sharpton attacked Dean on his affirmative action record in Vermont, and Braun came to Dean's defense. Sharpton and Braun are both African-American.
Braun has been in low single digits in polls nationally and in early primary states, and she expects to report raising less than a half-million dollars for 2003. She does not bring a raft of followers to Dean's fold, but her stamp of approval could help Dean with minority voters who are important in upcoming primaries, including the Feb. 3 contest in South Carolina.
The Dean campaign will pay Braun's expenses when she campaigns for him and may eventually put her on the payroll as a consultant, the sources said.
Braun is making the move, they said, because she has been disturbed by recent attacks on Dean by rival candidates, among them Sharpton and Missouri Rep. Richard Gephardt. During the testy exchange Sunday night with Sharpton, Dean conceded that he had not named any minorities to his Cabinet while governor.
"We have to have an honest conversation about race in this country. I think Howard's right about that," Braun said when it was her turn to speak.
Later, she reprimanded Sharpton by name. "The fact of the matter is, you can always blow up a racial debate and make people get mad at each other," she told him. "But I think it's time for us to talk about, what are you going to do to bring people together? Because ... people cannot afford a racial screaming match."
Vermont has a tiny minority population. Dean has had awkward moments on race matters several times in the campaign, particularly during one debate when he argued with Sharpton and North Carolina Sen. John Edwards over his remark that he wanted votes from people with Confederate flags on their pickups.
Even as he pounds against "the establishment," Dean has been on a roll with high-level endorsements. On Sunday he is scheduled to visit former president Jimmy Carter in Plains, Ga. The trip is not expected to yield an endorsement, merely high praise, according to the Dean campaign.
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