hat John McCain has a Democratic coordinator in Massachusetts is one thing.
But that it's James Hennigan III is another.
Here are Hennigan's credentials: Delegate to the 1976 National Democratic Convention for Jimmy Carter, former Democratic state Senate candidate, brother of a Democratic Boston city councilor, a member of a family active in Democratic politics for more than 100 years, and the keeper of a somewhat secret list naming other prominent Democrats - including elected officials across Massachusetts - who support the conservative GOP candidate.
Hennigan will not disclose the entire list. He does not want to ''out'' his friends.
''There are some names here that would be surprising. Some are within the city of Boston. A great number are up on the North Shore,'' said Hennigan, 45.
However, he will divulge a few names. And other Democrats - unbeknownst to Hennigan - have quietly changed their voter registration to unenrolled so they can vote for McCain.
About 25,000 Democrats have become unenrolled in preparation for Tuesday's GOP primary here, and many of them plan to vote for McCain. Among them are more than a few onetime party stalwarts.
There's Gerald FitzGerald, who served as press secretary to then-governor Michael S. Dukakis and was first assistant attorney general under James Shannon (now running Bill Bradley's campaign in Massachusetts).
There's Christine Sullivan Daly, who served as an aide to former US House speaker Thomas P. O'Neill, and her husband, Charles Daly, director of the Kennedy Library Foundation. There's Charles Ryan, former mayor of Springfield, and James Cowdell, city councilor from Lynn.
All lifelong Democratic activists. All voting for McCain or, as one delicately put it, keeping the ''option'' open. Some are even expecting consequences for their public support of McCain.
''I'm sure I'll be tossed off my Democratic City Committee for this. I'd be surprised if I wasn't,'' said Cowdell, a city councilor since 1987 in Lynn, which has 80,000 residents and fewer than 3,000 Republicans.
There is some comfort in numbers, however. Cowdell's Democratic friends are voting for McCain. So is his father.
Codwell, 38, is a lifelong Democrat whose parents have always pulled a lever for Democrats. But he said his ties to the party began to fray after he had to explain the Monica Lewinsky scandal to his 10-year-old son.
''I resent having to do that,'' he said, adding that he may even switch permanently to Republican. ''My father talks about John F. Kennedy and how proud he was about JFK and Truman; he's another one my father talks about. But presidents of my generation, they don't bring that same type of feeling.''
FitzGerald, an assistant district attorney in Bristol County, voted for President Clinton twice and has always voted for Democrats in presidential elections.
But he is setting his deep Democratic connections aside.
He admits the whole thing is incongruous. But, he says, his affinity for McCain is ''visceral.''
''I was never more sure about anything politically than I am about this,'' FitzGerald said.
''To put it bluntly, here is a man who has had his bones broken for this country.''
Charles Ryan, a Democrat who served three two-year terms as mayor in his native Springfield, said he and his wife became hooked on McCain when they drove to Peterborough, N.H., for one of the senator's town hall meetings two days before the primary.
''Everything I hoped to see was there,'' said Ryan, 72. ''We came back and made up our minds.''
The Ryans are now unenrolled, and unconcerned about the consequences in Democratic circles.
''It's a free country,'' Ryan said. ''You do what you think is proper.''
Christine Sullivan Daly, who says she does not agree ''with a single position'' of McCain's, said she became taken with him last May when he received the Profile in Courage Award at the Kennedy Library for his efforts on campaign finance reform. When he spoke, she said, ''you could hear a pin drop.''
She also said that, like her former boss, Tip O'Neill, McCain often reaches across party lines.
''I never voted for a Republican in my life,'' Daly said, adding that she became unenrolled last month and will probably decide in the ballot booth whether to disrupt the trend.
Former city councilor Albert ''Dapper'' O'Neil, the conservative Democrat from Roslindale, yesterday announced on an afternoon radio talk show that he has changed parties to vote for McCain and will endorse the senator this morning during a Copley Square rally at 9.
