Democratic party chairman Dean speaks in BR

• By SONIA SMITH
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Jul 20, 2008 - Page: 1B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Howard Dean capped off two days of zigzagging across Louisiana and Mississippi with a voter registration rally in Baton Rouge Saturday afternoon.

Speaking on a raised platform in front of New Hope Baptist Church, the chair of the Democratic National Committee promised voters that the party would be more active in the South this election cycle.

“We gave up on the South for too long,” Dean said. “We are never again going to fail to show up in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. We can win here.”

Both the Democratic Party and the South have changed a lot in the last 30 years, and Dean said, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has a good chance of winning Louisiana Nov. 4 if voters mobilize a grass-roots effort to support him.

“We cannot do this without you,” Dean, who wore a short-sleeved blue shirt and khaki trousers, said. “If you choose to do it, we’re going to win.”

Dean urged attendees to register with the Obama campaign to volunteer to knock on doors and register voters.

Dean also promised that the  national Democratic Party would throw its weight behind U.S. Rep. Don Cazayoux’s reelection bid in Louisiana’s 6th Congressional District this fall.

The former Vermont governor and his staff rolled up aboard a bright-blue campaign bus almost an hour behind schedule and rushed off to make a flight after Dean’s brief remarks.

Rev. Leo Cyrus, the pastor of New Hope Baptist Church, 5856 Greenwell Springs Road, said in an interview he was thrilled to host the event and characterized himself as a staunch Obama supporter.

“I think he’s going to bring something to this country that we’ve never had before,” Cyrus said.

Volunteers toting clipboards worked through the crowd of more than 50 attendees, looking to register voters and sign up more volunteers for Obama’s campaign.

Aaron Baer, communications director for the Republican Party of Louisiana, said Saturday he finds it telling that Dean would be touring the state instead of Obama himself, who has not appeared in Louisiana since Feb. 7, two days before he defeated Hillary Clinton in the state’s Democratic presidential preference primary election.

“Every public poll that I’ve seen has shown McCain with a commanding lead,” Baer said, citing the latest Rasmussen poll released Monday showing John McCain leading Obama by 20 points in Louisiana.