Howard Dean, the Democratic National Committee chairman, told the audience at a Barack Obama campaign event Thursday in Santa Fe that he was "preaching to the saved" in a liberal and heavily Democratic community.

But one of his main messages to people gathered in the Solana Center parking lot on West Alameda was that Democrats can't afford to ignore voters in more conservative and rural areas.

Dean, noting his "Register For Change Bus Tour" started out near President Bush's ranch, told the crowd, "even in Crawford, Texas, rural America is hurting."

The Democratic campaign must work hard in areas that voted overwhelmingly for the Republican president in 2004, he said, and reach out to evangelical Christians who have supported Republicans in recent elections.

Dean, a former Vermont governor who unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination in 2004, said polls show that top issues for evangelicals under age 35 are poverty, climate change and the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. "These are Democratic issues," he said. While Democrats might not agree with evangelicals on every issue and might not win a majority of this block, Dean said, common ground can be found.

After his speech, Dean told reporters: "We're going to have a presence in every county in New Mexico and every county in every state we think we can win. ... The mistake we made in '04 is that we tried to get out our base in the parts of New Mexico that are Democratic. We didn't go to the Republican parts."

The 2004 presidential race in New Mexico was among the closest in the country. Bush won with 49.8 percent of the vote — an approximately 6,000-vote margin over Democratic Sen. John Kerry.

Despite respectable victories in Northern New Mexico and Albuquerque, Kerry lost to Bush in southeastern counties by lopsided margins. Lea County voted nearly 80 percent for Bush, while Chaves County went almost 70 percent for Bush. Bush beat Kerry in Lincoln County by better than a 2-to-1 margin.

"First of all, Republicans are attracted to Obama because I think they're tired of the gross incompetence of the Bush/McCain approach to things," Dean said.

"And secondly, all we have to do is increase our voter count by 10 percent in those Republican counties and we can win easily," he said. "So it's foolish of us to ignore rural America, and we're not going to do it any more."

Dean has been praised by some Democrats for advocating a 50-state strategy for Democrats. He said that's paid off by widening the playing field.

"New Mexico and Iowa, for example, are always in play," he told reporters. "But we've added Nevada, Colorado, Montana, Alaska, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia. We've added a lot."

About 200 people showed up for Thursday's late-morning rally. Among local political dignitaries were Santa Fe Mayor David Coss; state House Speaker Ben Luján; his son, congressional candidate Ben Ray Luján; state Rep. Luciano "Lucky" Varela; County Clerk Valerie Espinoza; Green Party Public Regulation Commission candidate Rick Lass; and former Santa Fe Mayor and former state Democratic Party Chairman Sam Pick.

State Republican Party chairman Allen Weh issued a news release about Dean's visit to New Mexico: "In 2004 Howard Dean claimed 'the American people would be wise to elect a commander in chief with combat military experience.' Chairman Dean's comment is absolutely right for 2008. Senator John McCain has proven himself both on the battlefield, with foreign policy at the national level, and capable of leading this country on the first day he's in office. There are a lot of Democrats supporting Senator John McCain because of his experience and proven leadership, and if Howard Dean wasn't drawing a salary as the DNC chief, he might have to admit he was right."

Contact Steve Terrell at 986-3037 or sterrell@sfnewmexican.com.