ANCHESTER, N.H. - Howard Dean, the governor of Vermont, is expected to endorse Vice President Al Gore today in Lebanon, N.H., sources said.
The endorsement is scheduled for a tour of a children's center. Dean, who was not available for comment yesterday, is a former chairman of the National Governors Association and of the Democratic Governors Association.
He is also a physician who made health care the centerpiece of his early tenure as governor. In 1992, Dean signed a bill to negotiate with insurance companies for universal coverage. That bill was later rejected by the Legislature.
Dean also promoted early childhood development with a Success by Six prevention program that offered home visits to babies. And he has worked to subsidize health insurance for children.
In endorsing Gore, Dean is expected to say that he favors Gore's health care plan over the proposal offered by Bill Bradley, the former New Jersey senator. Gore's plan would attempt to cover all children and their families by the end of the next president's administration.
