Howard Dean, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, will be in Hawai'i on Thursday and Friday for fundraising and meetings with local Democrats.

Dean is expected to appear Thursday night at a private, high-end fundraiser on O'ahu for the DNC. A public, $50-per-person fundraiser is scheduled for Friday evening at The Mandalay downtown to benefit local Democrats.

Dean, a doctor and former governor of Vermont, became the DNC chairman in February 2005 and has popularized the party's 50-state strategy of competing across the country, rather than concentrating in states where Democrats are historically stronger.

Josh Wisch, an attorney active in the party, said Dean's stop in the Islands is part of fulfilling a promise to visit every state while chairman. Dean has advocated moving party resources outside of Washington, D.C., through initiatives such as having paid DNC staff in each state.

"He gave power back to the people in the states, who know the lay of the land locally," Wisch said.

Dean was the keynote speaker at the state party's convention in 2004. Dean had been a frontrunner for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination, showing strength in fundraising and mobilizing activists through the Internet, but dropped out of the race after losses in early caucuses and primaries.

Reach Derrick DePledge at ddepledge@honoluluadvertiser.com.