WASHINGTON – Sharp differences among Democrats over the best way to defeat Republicans in the November midterm elections were on display yesterday at a Washington conference of leading progressives, who suggested campaigning strategies quite contrary to those pursued by party leader Howard Dean.

Chief among the disagreements was how best to target voters. Unlike Dr. Dean, who favors exploiting the shortcomings of the Bush administration, a group of Democrats said a socially progressive agenda must be placed before electors, not the attacks on President Bush’s competence favored by Dr. Dean.

“Their failure is our success.The conservative government has reached its tipping point and both independents and moderates believe America is on the wrong track,” Democratic pollster and strategist Stanley Greenberg said during opening remarks of the conference “Take Back America.” “We have to run on who the administration is not helping and how they’re not helping them, if we want to win, not on the administration’s competence.”

The three-day conference, arranged by the reform group Campaign for America’s Future, aimed to rally support for a significant shift of the party’s platform to the left with the adoption of policies highlighting the errors of the Bush administration over the war in Iraq, energy dependence, trade, and universal health care.

During yesterday’s session, elected officials, party leaders, and leading Democratic players,among them the actor Robert Redford, Senate Minority Leader Reid, and former Democratic presidential candidate Gary Hart, proposed a range of initiatives intended to win back Congress. But one thought underlined them all: the belief that most Americans are progressive on most issues, and if offered strong, clear policies instead of mud-slinging, would vote conservatives out of office.

While the conference confirmed that Democrats remain relatively united in their view that lack of outreach to key voters and an apparent lack of conviction lost them the 2004 presidential election, Mr. Greenberg and other panelists called into question Dr. Dean’s plan to turn the midterm elections into a referendum on President Bush’s leadership and competence.

At an April DNC meeting, Dr. Dean announced a 50-state project, sending 175 DNC organizers to reconstruct local parties in both red and blue states. While many Democratic state chairmen have applauded the plan, some in Washington yesterday openly wondered whether the strategy underestimates states and communities, especially minority and poorer communities, that could provide new Democratic votes.

“In 2004, we were signing up people for the party in my old Milwaukee neighborhood, and they looked at us and said, ‘Man, you’ve lived here your whole life and never talked to me about Democratic politics. You must be getting a paycheck,'” an organizer for the National Hip-Hop Political Convention, Biko Baker, said.

“After a year of continuous outreach, one of our people signed up more than 50 people in less than an hour. Bush has reached a tipping point. But only young people and people of color are going to push him over.”

In his April address, Dr. Dean out lined a softer Democratic message.The former presidential candidate proposed a moderate message, pushing for the new Iraqi government to accept greater responsibility in defeating the insurgency, altering the Medicare prescription drug plan, and reducing the country’s dependence on oil.

Yesterday, Democrats, including Mr. Reid, called for stronger medicine, including pulling troops out of Iraq, the introduction of universal healthcare, and requiring all federal vehicles to be hybrids. “This has been a rubber-stamp Congress,” Mr. Reid said. “There’s a reason the president has never vetoed a bill. He gets whatever he wants.”

“You win the vote and the elections by finding the common ground – the people who have been left out and the swing voters,” a top adviser on Vice President Gore’s 2000 campaign, Jeff Trammell, said. “I’m not saying some very good ideas don’t come from conferences like this and spirited debate within a party is always fine. But at the end of the day, you have to pull together a broad enough group to win.”

Mr. Trammell added that Democrats needed to remember that Republicans would do whatever it took to win, including painting the opposition party as an indecisive body prone to infighting. “Democrats tend to be a little less hard-nosed,”Mr.Trammell said.

The response of the Republican National Committee was to go immediately on the offensive. “Democrats are once again turning to the radical left element of their party for direction instead of listening to mainstream Americans who want a repeal of their death tax, lower gas prices, and don’t believe surrender is a viable strategy to win the war on terror,” a spokesperson said.