Howard Dean

Democratic National Committee Chairman  Howard Dean came to Maine this week to mobilize volunteers for the Democratic Party.

Thursday he spoke at a Portland rally, click here for the Portland Press Herald’s report. Today he helped kick off voter registration drives in Waterville and Lewiston.

Lewiston saw a small crowd of about 40 -- a third of them were elected officials and press. They crowded around the gazebo in Kennedy Park, and Dean spoke without a microphone or a podium. See below for video.

Fourth district U.S. Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Fort Washington), the newest member of Congress, will deliver the keynote address at the 'Netroots Nation' conference in Austin, Texas on the evening of July 19.

Netroots Nation, formerly known as 'Yearly Kos,' began in 2006 as a conference for left-of-center political activists, many of whom frequented the website DailyKos.com. It's sponsor list reads as a 'who's who' of progressive interests and organizations.

The event will include dozens of caucuses and workshops for activists. Other speakers include House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean, blogger Markos Moulitsas, activist Van Jones and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman.

Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean plans to stick around Maine Friday to attend voter registration drives in Waterville and Lewiston.

Dean will be speaking at a rally this afternoon in Portland.

Dean will kick off voter registration at 9 a.m. at City Hall in Waterville, appearing with state Sen. Lisa Marrache, Reps. Marilyn Canavan and Pam Trinward and legislative candidate Henry Beck. All are Democrats from Waterville.

After the registration drive, he will visit Atkins Printing, a Waterville business. There he will meet with union workers and

At 10:40 he will meet with legislators and legislative candidates at Kennedy Park in Lewiston for another voter registration drive.

Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean plans to stick around Maine Friday to attend voter registration drives in Waterville and Lewiston.

Dean will be speaking at a rally this afternoon in Portland.

Dean will kick off voter registration at 9 a.m. at City Hall in Waterville, appearing with state Sen. Lisa Marrache, Reps. Marilyn Canavan and Pam Trinward and legislative candidate Henry Beck. All are Democrats from Waterville.

After the registration drive, he will visit Atkins Printing, a Waterville business. There he will meet with union workers and

At 10:40 he will meet with legislators and legislative candidates at Kennedy Park in Lewiston for another voter registration drive.

Thursday will be a busy day for the Democrats.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean will be in Portland at 3:15 that day for a “Vote for Change – Our Time is Now rally” at Longfellow Square. See the party’s Web site for more details.

Earlier that afternoon, at 2 p.m. in Kennebec County Superior Court, the Democrats will face off against the Secretary of State’s office over a recent decision to allow independent U.S. Senate candidate Herb Hoffman to stay on the ballot.

The Democrats hope to remove Hoffman from the ballot, claiming that a number of his qualifying signatures are invalid.

Every election year, professional speculators say that young people will vote this time. Every year they don’t. Capturing the youth vote has become the quixotic dream of all politicians.

U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Phoenix) is opening the Southwest Regional Headquarters for his presidential bid in Phoenix on Friday, according to Politico Mafioso. U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Phoenix), who chairs McCain's Arizona campaign, will be appearing to commence the celebration. A celebration of that sort is a long way off for U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), however, according to his campaign.

"We're still hiring staff" was the response from the Obama press office, which told PolitickerAZ.com that there are no plans in the immediate future for an Obama Arizona office. "It's still early, though," said the media contact.

LOUISVILLE -- As part of the national Democratic Party's effort to expand their operations to all fifty states, the Kentucky Democratic Party (KDP) is aiming to implement a new get-out-the-vote effort in Kentucky that enlists party activists to campaign in their own neighborhoods. On Wednesday evening, KDP Chair Jennifer Moore told a meeting of the Metro Democratic Club in Louisville of the ‘Neighbor-to-Neighbor' program and the logic behind it.

"How would you rather hear from - a stranger or someone that you know?" Moore asked the crowd. "We are the best people to go and talk to our neighbors and tell our neighbors why we are a Democrat, why they should be a Democrat, and - most importantly - why they should vote a straight Democratic ticket in the fall."

"They are going to talk to you because they know you," added Moore. "That is a world of difference from a paid walker or a volunteer who doesn't live in that neighborhood going to that door."

And because you haven't seen it in a while, here's the infamous video of Howard Dean's scream:

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean: Getty Images PhotoFormer Vermont Gov. Howard Dean will be staying on as chairman of the national Democratic Party. His 50-state grassroots organization plan is paying off and seems to have a believer in U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, who last week secured enough delegates to win the Democratic presidential nomination. Now Obama has decided to keep Dean on through at least Election Day in November, and, perhaps, beyond.

So what have we learned from the recent Democratic battle royal in Capital City?

For starters, if you break the rules, you have to pay a price. This could not be truer for the states of Florida and Michigan who had moved up their primaries, despite the fact that the rules for both the Democratic and Republican national committees forbid anyone to move their primaries before February 5. New Hampshire was the only exception for the Democrats.

Despite these rules, those two states moved their primaries up. The GOP penalized Michigan and Florida, along with Wyoming, New Hampshire and South Carolina by taking away one half of the delegates in that state. Obviously, there wasn’t a whole fallout about what the GOP handed down and no one seems to be surprised by the action. The Democrats, on the other hand, simply stripped Florida and Michigan of their delegates…all of them, and the candidates agreed not to campaign in those states. The democratic leadership did this to send a message to other states thinking about moving their primaries up, in an attempt to gain control of the schedule again.