Dean victorious in D.C. primary

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean won the District’s nonbinding Democratic presidential primary last night in an election that was supposed to draw attention to the city but was marked by average turnout for a presidential primary.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, seen as Mr. Dean’s biggest challenge, conceded the contest just before 11 p.m. He told supporters at his postelection party at Republic Gardens restaurant on U Street that Mr. Dean had too much institutional strength.

“We knew he had the [D.C.] Council, and we knew he had the unions,” Mr. Sharpton said, even as he proclaimed that his campaign had made good strides. “We were able to go up 30 points in the polls in two months.”

With 124 of 142 precincts reporting, Mr. Dean had 42 percent of the vote and Mr. Sharpton had 35 percent. Among the other major candidates on the ballot, former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois had 12 percent and Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio garnered 8 percent.

“For someone who never held political office to get a third of the vote in the nation’s capital is a huge story,” Mr. Sharpton said.

Donald S. Beyer Jr., national treasurer of the Dean campaign, said his candidate was “very pleased to win the D.C. primary.”

“Al Sharpton spent a good deal of time here, and got a very good vote total. Now we are hoping we can replicate our success here in Iowa, New Hampshire and Virginia,” said Mr. Beyer, a former Virginia lieutenant governor, at the Lucky Bar in Northwest.

The results are not binding. D.C. Democrats officially will choose their nominee at caucuses on Feb. 14 and will pick delegates to the national convention in Boston at a March 6 caucus. But city leaders wanted the primary as much to highlight the District’s lack of voting representation in Congress as to help choose a nominee.

“This nation will have to deal with statehood rights of D.C. as an issue,” Mr. Sharpton said last night at his party.

He also suggested that civil disobedience protests may take place in the February caucuses. He warned other candidates: “Bring your jail suits with you.”

Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, D.C. Democrat, said the primary had accomplished its mission.

“I declare it a success. I woke up this morning and all the newscasts said that D.C. was having a primary,” she said after voting at St. Monica’s Episcopal Church in Southeast.

“It’s not so much for the turnout, but for the importance of getting the message for D.C. statehood out,” Mrs. Norton said.

Last night, turnout was running at about 8 percent of eligible voters. That’s in line with the past two presidential primaries. In 2000, 8.8 percent of voters turned out for the May primary, and in 1996, 8.4 percent of voters turned out.

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