[*See today's updates below.]




Howard
Dean emerged Tuesday as the almost assured new leader of the Democratic
National Committee, as one of his main rivals quit the race and
Democrats streamed to announce their support….



Dr.
Dean's dominance was secured after Martin Frost, a former
representative from Texas, whom many Democrats viewed as the
institutional counterpart to Dr. Dean, dropped out after failing – in
what had become an increasingly long-shot effort – to win support from
national labor unions. The A.F.L.-C.I.O. announced instead that it
would remain neutral, freeing its affiliate members to do what they
wanted, which proved in many cases to be boarding the Dean train.



Actually,
the final word rests with the 447 members of the Democratic National
Committee, who will vote on Feb. 12 in Washington on a successor to
Terry McAuliffe. And Dr. Dean faces a last obstacle, the candidacy of
Donnie Fowler Jr., a Democratic operative from South Carolina.



Fowler
aides said they hoped to benefit from the appearance of this as a
two-man race with an opponent with a history of sometimes unorthodox
political behavior. Still, they acknowledged that the possibility of a
real competition was dimming…. Mr. Fowler, 37, is viewed as a
youthful political operative who even his allies concede may not yet
have the stature to lead the party.



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*Former chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party, David Leland, also dropped out of the race yesterday, backing Dean.