Howard Dean, Vermont Democrat, attends Princeton fund-raisers.
By: Jennifer Potash
Howard Dean, the blunt-speaking former Vermont governor, brought his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination to Princeton on Sunday.
Dr. Dean attended a $1,000-per-person event at the home of former state Attorney General Robert Del Tufo and a $250-per-person event at Princeton Borough Councilwoman Wendy Benchley’s residence on Boudinot Street.
The twin fund-raisers pulled in about $100,000 to the campaign, officials said.
A physician and the governor of Vermont from 1991 to 2002, Dr. Dean signed legislation approving civil unions for gay and lesbian couples and expanded the state’s health-care system to provide coverage to all children under 18 while cutting state income taxes. He also captured attention from the crowded primary field with his opposition to the war in Iraq.
Speaking in the garden before about 60 people, Dr. Dean took aim at not just Republicans and the Bush administration but members of the Democratic Party as well.
"Democrats cannot expect that by voting half the time for the president’s policies that will exempt them from the voters," Dr. Dean said. "Democrats need a clear and unambiguous message to win."
He also said the president’s use of pre-emptive force will set a bad precedent for other nations to follow and may put U.S. troops overseas at risk. He called for a new Marshall Plan, "in rebuilding Iraq so democratic institutions will take root instead of fundamentalist governments hostile to U.S. interests.
"If the president doesn’t see that, then I don’t know what he was smoking at Yale," quipped Dr. Dean, also a Yale alumnus.
Promoting his belief in achieving social justice through fiscal responsibility, Dr. Dean called for the expansion of Medicare to individuals under age 25, pointing out most industrial nations, "even the dreaded French," offer universal coverage to their citizens.
Dr. Dean said it was "despicable" for President Bush to describe the University of Michigan affirmative action lawsuit before the U.S. Supreme Court as a "quota system."
By doing so, the president appeals to baser instincts of Americans, who think in tough economic times minorities will take their jobs and places at universities, Dr. Dean said.
Dr. Dean also has a Princeton connection as his wife, Dr. Judy Steinberg Dean, earned a biochemistry degree from Princeton University in 1975.
U.S. Rep. Rush Holt (D-12), Anne Martindell, a former U.S. ambassador to New Zealand, state Sen. Shirley Turner (D-Lawrence), state Assemblywoman Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing) and Mercer County Freeholder Brian Hughes attended the fund-raiser. Also, state Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-Princeton Borough) and Princeton Borough Councilman Joseph O’Neill, both running in the borough’s primary for mayor, were at the fund-raiser.

