Howard Dean says views will appeal to Arizonans

Whether any Democrat can win the South is open to debate - Gore didn't carry a single state there, but would have won the election beyond dispute if he had also taken New Hampshire. But the West is another story, and contrary to perception, the Dems can do well. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is probably on the Veep short list, for exxample, so it's almost certain to be fertile ground. Dean has also been focusing on Arizona (and if I am not mistaken is the only candidate to have a campaign office there). The Arizona Republic takes notice:

Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean may seem like a liberal to the rest of the country, but he said Tuesday that some of his conservative views will appeal to Arizonans.

In a telephone interview Thursday with The Arizona Republic, Dean said Arizonans are going to like his conservative stand on gun rights and fiscal issues, as well as his progressive views on gay rights.
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As of June 30, Dean had raised about $105,000 in Arizona from more than 1,300 contributors.

"I may be the only person who is electable (of the Democratic candidates) because the key to beating George Bush is to bring new people into the party," he said.

Dean, whose anti-war populism has turned his campaign from longshot to news magazine cover boy, ripped President Bush's forest policy as "an excuse to open up the wilderness to the logging industry."

"This president talks a good game, but he never gave $1 to stop the forest fires that are happening in Arizona," Dean told The Republic between campaign stops in Iowa.

"I don't think we should use the forest fire tragedies as an excuse to open up logging miles away."

On Monday, Bush used his visit to a Tucson-area mountain community to push his Healthy Forests Initiative and view the devastation of the "Aspen" fire.