In the early days of the Democratic presidential primary, a frontrunner emerged to tower above the eight other candidates who were fighting for their party's support.
Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont, easily raised more money than his opponents, stacked up endorsements from Democratic heavyweights like Al Gore and appeared on the covers of Time and Newsweek magazines.
And then he lost.
But he didn't leave his large grass-roots base -- much of it students -- behind.
In his recent ascent as the leader of the Democratic National Committee, many in the party are hopeful that he will bring the student support along with him.
According to Anne Dicker, a member of the steering committee of Philly for Change, the pro-Dean organizations are still very much alive in this city.
"Not only will we be strong, we are growing," Bicker said.
Beth Shupp-George, coordinator of Four-States for Democracy, a pro-Dean organization active in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia, agreed.
"Those grass roots organizations are still going strong. There's always another election coming up," Shupp-George said. "There were so many people who were not involved who got involved."
After Dean dropped out of the race, Dicker's organization switched its name from Philly for Dean to Philly for Change and remained active on behalf of "progressive" candidates.
Recently, the organization mobilized a protest against Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) during his visit to Drexel University.
"We want more progressive candidates, candidates that have a backbone and speak their minds," Dicker said. "There are some [Democratic leaders] that continue to be wishy-washy. Hopefully, Dean will fire a bunch of them."
Shupp-George's organization has also changed direction and broadened its horizons to causes such as getting Dean elected Democratic National Committee Chairman and working on the issue of Social Security.
Jessica Smyth, the president of the Penn College Democrats, said that Dean raised the most support of the candidates among Penn students during his campaign.
"We set up umbrella groups under our organization," Smyth said. "Penn for Dean was one of the strongest."
Smyth added that the Penn Democrats were effective at absorbing many Dean supporters into the larger organization after the primaries.
"What we tried to do this year was not be just about an election," Smyth said. "There was a united front behind Kerry."
The involvement of students in Dean's campaign seems to have been even greater at other local schools than at Penn.
"I would say that the greatest activity was at Temple. They signed up thousands of new students over the summer," Bicker said. "Drexel also has a large group of Philly for Changers."
While many former Dean supporters became involved in the larger Democratic organization, they do not seem to have abandoned their original cause.
"We were instrumental in getting Dean elected to the DNC chairmanship through a letter-writing campaign," Dicker said.
However, Rogers Smith, the chairman of Penn's Political Science Department, played down the importance of these efforts on behalf of Dean's chairmanship bid.
"The grass roots organizations' biggest importance was that they raised money," Smith said. "It is true that Dean's capability to raise these funds made him attractive for that position."
Smith was also wary of attributing the rise of grass roots organizations exclusively to Dean.
"They certainly have been strong in Pennsylvania, especially student activists in Pennsylvania and at Penn," Smith said. "I'm not sure how much of that is traceable to the Dean groups."
