Democrat Dean attracts few faces of color [View All]

[Nambe]

WASHINGTON (AP)

Democrat Howard Dean has drawn new faces to politics, many of them young, middle-class Web surfers. Few of those faces are of color.

The presidential candidate has seized the momentum in the nine-way primary race with an Internet-driven campaign that has attracted thousands of supporters and millions of dollars. But Dean's success with minorities, a crucial constituency for any Democratic candidate, has been limited and political analysts wonder whether he can broaden his appeal.

"I think it's going to be difficult for him to connect," said David Bositis, a political analyst at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a think tank focused on black issues. "He doesn't have any history with blacks."

Dean, a Park Avenue-raised, Yale-educated internist, practiced in Burlington, Vt., and later served as the state's governor for 11 years. Vermont has a population that is nearly 98 percent white, according to the latest Census data. ---