BANGOR – After a whirlwind week in Iowa and California, Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean landed in the city Friday with a message for the party faithful:

“We can do better than that,” Dean, a doctor and former Vermont governor, told a crowd of more than 300 people at the Bangor Motor Inn Convention Center, blasting the current administration for what he dubbed failed economic, environmental and educational policies.

The now familiar refrain has punctuated many of Dean’s speeches in the past month, during which time he has emerged as a top contender to challenge Republican President Bush in November 2004.

Although some party insiders have labeled him too liberal to win the White House, many at Friday’s rally rejected the notion.

“He says what he thinks,” said Chris Wilcox, 32, of Kenduskeag, who rattled off Dean’s accomplishments as governor, including a string of balanced budgets, although not required by Vermont law. “As more Americans hear about that, it’s going to make a big difference.”

Wilcox, who carried around a small, blue baseball bat plastered with Dean stickers – symbolic he said of the candidate’s attitude toward cleaning out Washington, D.C., – is not the only one talking about the 54-year-old Dean’s suddenly competitive presidential bid.

Dean’s grass-roots campaign has built noticeable momentum in the past month, bolstered by July polls showing him at or near the top of the Democratic pack nationwide and – more importantly in some respects – in Iowa and New Hampshire, the sites of the nation’s first presidential caucus and primary, respectively. Both will be held in January.

More than polls, however, Dean has enjoyed a fund-raising coup of sorts, collecting an impressive $7.6 million – $4 million of which was pledged over the Internet – for the second quarter of the year.

The total, the vast majority of which came in donations of less than $200, bested those of all his rivals, including Capitol Hill heavyweights Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and the party’s 2000 vice presidential candidate Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn.

Dean’s surge has prompted some of his more established opponents – most recently Kerry – to zero in on the former governor whose no-nonsense campaign has captured the attention of the national media of late.

Earlier this week, Kerry and Dean – although separated by more than 1,000 miles – sparred over Dean’s willingness to repeal the Bush tax cuts, some of which are targeted to middle-income families, a powerful constituency fiercely coveted by both parties.

During a Wednesday morning speech in New Hampshire, Kerry made a thinly veiled reference to Dean’s position, saying that “real Democrats don’t turn their backs on the middle class.”

“Real Democrats don’t make promises they can’t keep,” Dean shot back at a speech later in the day in Iowa. Dean has said he would use half the Bush tax cut to pay for health care initiatives.

Kerry isn’t the only one taking aim at the “good doctor,” as Dean is known on his own expansive Web site.

On Tuesday, Lieberman, a staunch supporter of the war in Iraq, criticized Dean by name for his vocal anti-war stance at the outset of the conflict.

Dean’s Bangor rally comes one day after a stop in San Francisco, where he outlined his environmental plan and chided the Bush administration for its willingness to “reverse decades of responsible environmental policy.”

Bush aides were quick to call the speech a “partisan rant” and proclaim Dean “out of touch” on the issue.

But judging by the higher than expected turnout and reaction to Dean’s 20-minute speech, those at Friday’s rally in Bangor were on the same page as the plain-spoken former governor.

Before leaving for Camden for a private fund-raiser, Dean took time to shake hands, sign autographs and chat with scores of people who stayed behind after the speech.

Among them was Sarah Levine who came from Hancock County to see the candidate.

“With [former President] Bill Clinton, he had charisma, but there was always something slick about him,” Levine, 62, of Surry said. “[Dean] has charisma too, but he has a kernel to him.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.