Dean appears to be lock for party chairman

WASHINGTON, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean emerged Tuesday as the likely next Democratic National Committee chairman after his last two opponents quit the race.

On Friday, veteran campaign tactician Donnie Fowler, son of Clinton-era DNC Chairman Don Fowler, quit the race, leaving as Dean's only opponent former Rep. Tim Roemer, D-Ind., who dropped out Monday after unofficial surveys of the committee's voting members showed Dean with more than enough votes to carry the day in Saturday's election for chairman.

A medical doctor by training, Dean served as governor of Vermont from 1991 until he left office voluntarily in January 2003.

In 2004, running for president as the candidate of "the Democratic wing of the Democratic party," Dean went from dark horse to front runner almost overnight as a result of his campaign's ability to harness the Internet to shape public opinion inside the party's activist base before his campaign's sudden collapse in the Iowa caucuses.