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This weekend marked the tenth anniversary of Howard Dean’s presidential campaign kick-off, a moment that brought many of the original staff back to Burlington for a reunion. There aren’t too many campaigns that would have cause for a tenth reunion, except that the Dean campaign is even more exceptional ten years out than it seemed at the time. I did a number of interviews this past week, explaining the campaign’s transformational significance in US politics. Among them:

VTDigger:

“If you look around at every major political institution in the Democratic Party today, it is either run by a Dean alumnus or by somebody who has studied and adopted the Dean model,” Graff said.

Burlington Free Press:

Beyond statistics, however, Graff’s most cherished campaign memory took place in New York City on the last stop of the Sleepless Summer Tour in August 2003: “There were 10,0000 people in Bryant Park. Most of us on the staff had joined without any expectation he could win. Same for Dean. But, suddenly, we really thought we were going to change the world. It was a magical night.”

Associated Press:

Garrett Graff, whom Trippi credits with coming up with the ham sandwich idea, is editor of The Washingtonian magazine.