Howard Dean on DNC chair: 'This is not something I have to do'

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean is running to take back his old position as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, but took care Monday morning to note that “this is not something I’m going to push people out of the way for.”

Dean was his party’s chairman from 2005-2009 and said he is the best man for the job specifically because he has guided the Democrats before out of a hole similar to the one they find themselves in now.


“When I started, when my team started, we didn't have the house, the senate or the presidency. When we left four years later with had the house, the senate and the presidency,” Dean told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe. “So, you know, I think I know how to do this. But, you know, this is not something -- I've already done this once. This is not something I have to do. This is not something I’m going to push people out of the way for.”

While Dean has held the job of DNC chairman before, he’s far from the favorite to succeed interim party chief Donna Brazile. Many of the party’s biggest names, including incoming Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.), have already endorsed Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) for the job even though he has yet to officially announce a bid for it.

The Vermont governor said Ellison is “terrific” and noted that he had gone door-to-door with him during the Minnesota congressman’s first campaign. Dean said “I'm going to be supportive of whoever wins this,” but repeated what he has said in the past, that he does not think it is possible to be an effective party chairman while holding elected office at the same time.

While refining a political message will be crucial if the Democratic Party is to escape the minority in both houses of Congress and mount a strong challenge for the White House in four years, Dean said the DNC chairman’s job is one that focuses more on mechanics and less on messaging, which should come from the party’s policy leaders in Congress. He said the party needs to do a better job of involving young people and minorities if it is to rebound from last week’s historic defeat.

“The house and senate leadership are going to have to deliver the economic message. The DNC chair can do that. I think that's important. But it's important for the policy leaders to do that. What the DNC is about is mechanics,” Dean said. “It is about being everywhere. It's about training people up. It's about having an adequate tech system which we no longer apparently have. And it's about enfranchising people in the states to make their own decisions about who runs instead of having the D-triple-C or the DSCC pick candidates who can fund their own campaigns and then can't win because they can't get the message across. That is the problem with the Democratic Party.”