WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Howard Dean's top aides are urging him to abandon the Democratic presidential race if he loses Wisconsin's primary, officials said Sunday.\nAnd they're all but certain he will follow their advice.\nSteve Grossman, national chairman of Dean's campaign, said the former Vermont governor would seek to convert his grass-roots network into a movement helping to expand the party and elect the Democratic nominee -- "and, obviously, that looks likely to be John Kerry."\nSeveral other senior campaign officials said Dean would likely bow to intense pressure from his own advisers to give up his bid for the presidency, although they disagreed with Grossman over how much -- if any -- direct help Dean would be willing to give Kerry.\nPolls show Kerry -- a Massachusetts senator who has won 14 of 16 contests to date -- holding a wide lead in Wisconsin, site of Tuesday's contest. The Democratic candidates were meeting in the state for a debate Sunday.\nCampaign manager Roy Neel did not dispute the sources' assertions but cautioned Dean is still mulling his options, should he lose Tuesday.\n"Governor Dean is hearing from a lot of people now with advice from every imaginable direction, but in the end, he'll make this decision about the rest of his campaign based on a number of things, including how the debate goes tonight and the Wisconsin primary Tuesday night," Neel said.\nAdviser Kate O'Connor said, "He hasn't made a decision on what he's going to do, but there are a lot of people contacting us both ways."\nThe comments were at odds with the defiant tone struck by Dean hours before the debate in Milwaukee. "We're going to keep going, no matter what, because I think there are a lot of people all over this country who want to rebuild the party and rebuild America in a different way," Dean said on "Fox News Sunday".\nDean had told supporters via e-mail, a defeat Tuesday would end his bid for the nomination, but he has backed away from that statement in recent days.
Several top advisers, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Dean has privately acknowledged his prospects for the presidency will effectively end if he suffers another major defeat Tuesday. They leave open the increasingly-remote possibility he will waver again.\nFor the first time, there is a near-unanimous consensus among advisers it would be foolhardy for Dean to continue fighting for the nomination beyond Wisconsin. The circle of die-hards has shrunk, and most confidants are telling Dean it's time to begin making plans to convert his Internet-fueled network into a long-term political movement.\n"I have no doubt he'll support the nominee in any way he can -- no matter who the nominee is and obviously that nominee looks to be John Kerry," Grossman said in a telephone interview from Vermont. "He may say that Tuesday night. He may wait until Wednesday or Thursday to say that."\nGrossman said Dean feels just as strongly he is obligated to press for reforms supported by voters who made him last year's front-runner. "In what form that movement takes, I can't spell that out to you and I don't think Howard could right now, either," said Grossman, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee.\n"I believe that work will effectively be in concert with ... and fairly supportive of John Kerry, should he become the nominee, and it appears he will," Grossman said.\nOther top advisers said they had doubts whether Dean would ever work directly on Kerry's behalf this year. They suggested Grossman was trying to curry favor with Kerry.\nOfficials said they are discussing ways to use Dean's network to help elect Democrats to Congress -- action effectively, but not directly, support Kerry's agenda as president. Scores of campaign aides were making plans to leave their jobs after Tuesday.\nAdvisers say Dean is torn between his pragmatic conclusion the race is about over, and his emotional attachment to the fight itself and his supporters. His staff is looking at several options -- such as suspending, not technically ending, the campaign -- that would give Dean a voice in the process even after he concedes.\n"This is a delicate balancing act that has to be struck for Howard Dean," Grossman said. "His supporters, they will not want him to give up and will want to carry out the cause. His name is on the ballot in many states, whether he campaigns or is less engaged. The fact is Howard Dean will do everything possible to help the nominee. He will do nothing to undercut the nominee's success."\nThe advisers sought to square their perceptions with Dean's public remarks.\n"When Howard Dean says he's not going to quit, what he means is the battle to restore democracy and citizen participation is long-term and he's not going to quit on that battle," Grossman said.\nBut Dean would quit attacking Kerry, the chairman said.\n"Should he not win Wisconsin, you will see a meaningful shift in rhetoric, a meaningful shift in tone and a meaningful shift in the time he spends" building his campaign base into a long-term movement," Grossman said.
