ERRY, N.H. - As Vice President Al Gore emerged victorious in New Hampshire, his success was due in no small part to a scrapper from Dorchester with a gravel-rough voice and a superstitious view of the political landscape.
In fact, top officials in the Gore campaign - and even the vice president himself - credit Michael J. Whouley with Gore's sizable win in the Iowa caucuses as well as the turnaround of a troubled candidacy here. Both states are essential proving grounds on the road to clinching the nomination.
''His assignment was Iowa and New Hampshire,'' Gore said, sipping coffee during an interview last weekend at the River View Cafe in Milford. ''You know, if you assign somebody those two tasks, you've got to have somebody who is completely and totally reliable.''
Gore credited Whouley with the Iowa win. Now he's bound to get some credit for the New Hampshire win, too.
''He is so incredibly focused that when he sets out for the achievement of a particular objective, book it,'' Gore said. ''Don't waste any further time worrying about whether or not that objective will be reached. If he says he's aimed at it and he's going to do it, just book it, it's going to happen.''
Whouley, 40, got his political start in 1979, running Ward 15 in Dorchester for Joseph Timilty's campaign against Kevin White, the Boston mayor. Since that time, he has run two statewide field operations for Senator John F. Kerry; he ran three states for Michael S. Dukakis during the 1988 presidential race; he served as Bill Clinton's national field director during the 1992 general election; and he was Gore's campaign manager in 1996.
Currently, he's on leave from the Boston public-strategies firm, Dewey Square Associates, where he represents AT&T, Northwest Airlines, and Save the Harbor/Save the Bay, among others.
This past year may stand as out as his most tumultuous. On Aug. 18, he and his wife, Sally Kerans, the former state representative from Danvers, moved to Washington with their daughter, Nora, 4, and newborn son, Peter, so Whouley could work on the Gore campaign. Six weeks later, Gore announced he was relocating his headquarters to Nashville. Whouley has been shuttling between Nashville, Iowa, New Hampshire, and Washington ever since.
But it was Sept. 5 when the real earthquake hit: A Boston Globe/WBZ poll unexpectedly showed Gore in a dead heat with Bill Bradley in New Hampshire, catching the campaign off guard. Gore's campaign chairman, Tony Coehlo, dispatched Whouley to New Hampshire to assess the situation.
''Whouley sort of said, `Houston, we have a problem,''' recalled Carter Eskew, Gore's chief strategist.
Whouley began meeting with Gore's top supporters here, including Joe Keefe and Chris Dermer, as well as Nick Baldick, the state director. They poured out their misgivings about a campaign that was treating New Hampshire as if it were California or New York.
''We felt he wasn't really known up here, and he wasn't connecting with people,'' Keefe said of Gore, who at one time stayed behind rope lines, always had royal blue drapery for a backdrop, and never met a podium he didn't like.
It was Whouley's idea to cut Gore free of his script, depositing him in front of undecided voters and answering any and all questions for as long as it took. The ''open meetings'' were a hit, and Gore said he intends to continue them after leaving New Hampshire.
''I would cite the date Michael Whouley took over as the date our comeback began,'' Keefe said.
Anxiously smoking a cigarette behind Mary Ann's Diner here while Gore was inside campaigning on Sunday, Whouley brushed off all kudos. He said he considers the very idea of an article about him ''bad karma'' for the campaign. And he lauds Baldick, Governor Jeanne Shaheen, Keefe, and too many others to name for making Gore's candidacy here competitive once more.
''It wasn't rocket science,'' Whouley said. ''It was what the folks in New Hampshire had been asking for.''
There also were problems in Iowa, where an aura of complacency had set in. Sensing an opening, Bradley poured $2 million into television advertising there and spent twice as many days campaigning there as Gore.
Whouley moved in full time.
Much of his energy was spent persuading others not to believe polls that showed Gore easily beating Bradley and lecturing on the difficulty of motivating voters to go to a caucus and talk, rather than to a polling place.
''I told people by the end of the caucuses I didn't want to talk to him anymore because he's depressing me,'' Eskew said.
Of course, Gore beat Bradley in Iowa by 28 percentage points, and Whouley returned to New Hampshire, where he continued to caution against irrational exuberance in light of numerous polls giving Gore the edge.
''I have a lot of Irish superstition,'' he said, explaining his approach to campaigns. ''No matter where you are, you should wake up in the morning like you're five points behind, and if you work real hard, you can pull it out.''
Now, Whouley can return to his family in Washington - he's been away since Jan. 2 - and await his next assignment.
