Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean has surprised many by raising more money in the past three months than any of the Democrats who’re running for President.Dean says it shows he has the “capacity to win the nomination.” And Dean says he thinks it shows he has the “capacity to beat George Bush.” Dean raised about seven-and-a-half million dollars in the past three months. His closest rival, Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, raised about six million. North Carolina Senator John Edwards and Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman each raised about five million. Dean says the way he outraised everybody was not through big donations, as the average donation to his campaign was one-hundred-12 dollars. He says it was because he garnered small donations from a lot of people. His aides say 48-thousand of the 60-thousand people who donated to Dean’s campaign had never contributed to a political campaign before — and a great share of the money was raised over the Internet. Dean says the way to beat Bush is to build a grassroots campaign that will overcome the 200-million dollars that President Bush will raise for his reelection effort, and Dean says outreach to supporters through the Internet is one way to do that. A poll released yesterday showed Missouri Congressman Richard Gephardt, Dean and Kerry in a virtual dead heat in Iowa, the state which hosts the kickoff event of the next Presidential campaign. Dean campaigned this morning in Washington and Davenport.
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