Howard Dean is pursuing a last-gasp strategy of winning the Feb. 17 Wisconsin primary, but many Democrats, aides and supporters are privately predicting the end to one of the wildest, most unpredictable and most innovative presidential campaigns of recent times.

On the one-year anniversary of the first Internet meet-up for Dean supporters, which quickly grew into a revolutionary e-campaign and fund-raising machine, the former Vermont governor is pleading with supporters to buy into the unorthodox strategy he can lose 15 states in a row and still turn his campaign around.

“It’s looking pretty dismal, isn’t it?” said Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif., a Dean backer.

“It’s going to extraordinarily difficult,” said Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii, who stays in contact with the campaign. “Unless he wins and shortly, we have to face up to the fact” that a prolonged fight could undercut the larger goal of Dean supporters: beating President Bush.

After spending more than $40 million with no victories to show, Dean failed to meet his own low expectations in the seven states that voted on Feb. 3. He had hoped to win New Mexico and mop up delegates in other states. Instead, he lost every state, won about half as many votes as Wesley Clark overall and limped away with seven delegates out of the 269 at stake.

Dean predicted Wednesday that he would win in Washington. He is likely to hear the first calls for his withdrawal if his prediction is wrong, several Democrats said. “If he can’t break through in Washington, then he has to hang it up,” said former Rep. Tony Coelho, Calif., chairman of Al Gore’s 2000 campaign. “At that point, he won’t have any credibility going forward.”