In January, they'll be 4 regional DNC member gatherings. I encourage all the Netroots activists out there to attend one of them nearest to you, if possible. It's very likely that the active candidates for the DNC Chair will be in attendence, and be accessible to the public. I'll try to confirm that as we get nearer the event, at least for the Reform candidates attending. Again, here's the January dates and cities (exact locations will be available later): 1/8, Atlanta; 1/15, St. Louis; 1/22, Sacramento; 1/29 New York City. DrivingVotes.org is going to be organizing roadtrips to the events, so you can also sign up there to be informed.

Now, on to the CattleCall. It's been a fairly slow couple of weeks, with few developments, and no one publically dropping out, but a couple of more possible entrants, raising the number of candidates circulating to 10.

Howard Dean is still on track to being favored, and for him, no news is good news. Dean continues to work away under the radar, even on the web. I reviewed the Silent Revolution underway in an entry last Friday that details this a bit further. The bottom line for Dean is that the threat of an ABD candidate hasn't seriously emerged (in fact, it's very fractured at the moment), and the Not Dean argument sounds even shriller and sillier than it did a year ago. Howard Dean must become the new Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair, and nobody else will do, sums up alot of what being said on the net, and the volume will rise as Feb 12th draws near.

Dean got a semi-endorsement last week that might matter, with Bob Strauss indicated that:

They are slowly coming around to the Dean.

Wellington Webb officially announced his candidacy last week, and sent out letters to all of the DNC members. Given the “Convention Style” of balloting for the DNC Chair, it’s not difficult to see Webb winding up in the final three or four, but it gets difficult to see him as a consensus candidate that the ‘status quo’ DC forces would rally around against Dean. Webb’s got some ASDC support, but it’s not deep, and Fowler has been making in-roads.

Donnie Folwer and Simon Rosenberg are the two most active candidates. In terms of using the internet with traditional media, and contacting DNC Members, they are way ahead, at least from the current perspective, but they face the same delimma down the road.

Fowler and Rosenberg are both Reform candidates that understand the use of the netroots. Fowler has support within the ASDC with his own contacts over the years, and his father still has a lot of sway. Rosenberg has a blogosphere following and is generating support among the Clinton crew. Yet the problem both Fowler and Rosenberg run up against is that with Dean in the race, they have limited "Reform" upside running against the Reform Democrat.

Now, if Dean were to drop out (and I don't believe he will), the race between Fowler (working from the Brewer/ASDC angle) and Rosenberg (working from the Clinton/DC angles) for DNC Member support would intensify, and the battle in the blogosphere might resemble the Clark-Dean fest. As it stands though, Fowler and Rosenberg are grooms still waiting for their curtain to rise. But here's the latest news on the two.

A 527 “Fowler for Chair” organization has been set up by a former advisor to then DGA-Chair Vilsack, to support the election of Donnie Fowler as Chair, and Fowler is already rolling out a national finance team in place. Fowler’s following DraftHoward.com in the use of the Google ads gets props (including the opponents names), and fwiw (a blogad), Wonkette is backing Fowler.

For Rosenberg, the NewDem.org site has a video clip of his recent appearance on CNN’s Inside Politics, MyDD guest blogger Matt Stoller has endorsed Rosenberg for DNC Chair, Simon’s been posting regularly on the NDNBlog.org site, including The Race for DNC Chair, where the Economist profiles the RNC’s view for the job of Chair, and Simon responds on the evolving role of the DNC. And here's David Corn's look at Rosenberg's response to TNR's Beinart:

I had the same thumbs-up response when I finally got around to reading the issue yesterday.

Tim Roemer is calling around and sending out letters of introduction to DNC Members. To understand the candidacy of Tim Roemer, you have to understand the reason why Nancy Pelosi and Harry Ried put aside any sort of litmus test-- even regarding support against the GOP's attempts to dismantle Social Security, and it has nothing to do with abortion (which the Republicans love to have wedging around inside the Democratic camp), or the fact that Roemer is a former defense contractor lobbyist. Pure and simple, similar to the ASDC's motives, it's a money grab of the DNC by Congress. With a vacuum of power at the DNC, both the Congressional Leadership and the ASDC see the opportunity to re-allocate the DNC's funds toward their own use. Roemer is not a particularly strong candidate because he's a DC-insider, and given how toxic anything DC is to many of the DNC Members, I doubt he has much traction, but he will listen to Pelosi and Reid. I'll follow up more on this later, especially in regards to the Fowler Amendments being proposed by Don Fowler Sr of the ASDC.

Texas Candidates number three now. Martin Frost, one would have thought, would have the backing of Pelosi. Without even the backing of Congress, it’s hard to see where Frost begins to claim support. The other Texan in the race, Ron Kirk, indicated in an interview that he was interested in being the spokesman for the party, but wanted to leave the DNC's day-to-day operations to someone else, which tremendously lowers his stock. And in Orlando, nominating petitions were gathered on behalf of Molly Beth Malcolm, the ’98-03 chair of the Texas Democratic Party. Who knows what the Texans are thinking here, like Off the Kuff though, I’m not to thrilled at letting Malcolm do nationally what she did for Texas.

Jim Blanchard is clinging to the hope that MI's Gov. Granholm can convince Richardson to step away from Dean, and let Blanchard have the DGA's endorsement to himself. But even then, the DGA doesn't have the sway that the ADSC does, though probably just as much as does the DC Congressional leaders. And besides, who wants an Energy Lobbyist as the next DNC Chair?

Harold Ickes is fading fast. The only blogger who thought that Ickes had a shot was Chris Nolan, though Chris is now seemingly convinced that Fowler is an ABD cadidate and willing to go that route.