AG HARBOR, N.Y. - Today is shaping up to be a long, tortuous one for those on Al Gore's short list for a running mate, as the vice president appears ready to work right up against his self-imposed deadline to pick the person who will complete the Democratic presidential ticket.
Gore huddled in Nashville yesterday with family members, search committee chief Warren Christopher, and key campaign aides to winnow the field, but aides said the vice president is likely to take until later today, perhaps even until early tomorrow morning, to make his final decision.
A high-ranking official in the Gore campaign said the list had been narrowed to three: Senators John F.Kerry, 57, of Massachusetts, John Edwards, 48, of North Carolina, and Joseph I. Lieberman, 59, of Connecticut.
Kerry was on the shuttle to Washington yesterday, when his cell phone rang at 4:59 p.m., causing the senator, who had been reading a newspaper, nearly to jump out of his seat.
It wasn't ''THE call,'' Kerry told the Globe, but someone from the Gore campaign saying the vice president was going to ''sleep on the decision overnight.''
But while the Gore campaign was insisting Gore would ponder the question up until almost the last minute, Kerry hinted a decision might come earlier.
''I 'm sure you all will have a pretty good sense of this pretty quickly,'' Kerry said.
Gore and those helping him choose a running mate refused to discuss specific candidates yesterday.
''I haven't decided yet. I have not decided yet, but I will shortly,'' Gore told supporters who gave an aggregate $250,000 to the Democratic National Committee at a private fund-raiser yesterday in the Long Island resort town of Southhampton.
''I'd say we're coming to the end of the road,'' Christopher told reporters as he entered the meeting with Gore in Nashville later in the afternoon. ''We're trying to do it in a professional manner.''
Gore spokesman Chris Lehane said ''there is no firm timetable in place,'' and said a decision definitely would not be reached yesterday.
Gore may ''make the calls'' as late as the wee hours of tomorrow morning, giving the vice presidential pick barely enough time to fly to Nashville for the official announcement, Lehane said.
Asked how he felt about being a leading contender, Kerry said, ''I'm honored to be there, and I like the company, and he's got a decision to make, and I respect that.'' Asked what he would do if he did get a call from Gore, the senator laughed.
''I guess it depends on what he says,'' Kerry said.
Sitting in on the meeting yesterday were Gore's brother-in-law, Frank Hunger, Christopher, and several high-ranking campaign aides. Gore's wife, Tipper, planned to attend the meeting, but flight delays made her participation uncertain. Mrs. Gore ''is his top adviser,'' Lehane said. Although her opinion will carry substantial weight, ''ultimately, it is his decision,'' Lehane said.
Officially still in the mix besides Kerry, Lieberman, and Edwards are Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana, New Hampshire Governor Jeanne Shaheen, and House minority leader Richard A. Gephardt.
But Bayh's star has fallen, a senior Gore campaign official said, and both Gephardt and Shaheen have said they don't want the job.
Gore also has made coy mention of an ''out-of-the-box,'' wild card candidate, whom he refuses to name.
Kerry was described by the senior campaign official as the safest bet for Gore, but there appeared to be increasing interest in the young senator from North Carolina, Edwards.
The primary criticism of Edwards is that he has little experience, having spent less than two years in the Senate. Edwards's main detractors are members of the Washington establishment who don't know him, the official said.
But Gore is very impressed with Edwards, and the campaign believes the senator's presence on the ticket could put several southern states in play for the Democrats, including Edwards's home state of North Carolina. Edwards could help in Georgia, which has suddenly become competitive because of a hot Senate race involving the newly appointed Democrat, former governor Zell Miller, as well as in Louisiana, Tennessee, and Arkansas, campaign aides said.
Currently, the Democrats believe they are trailing in every Southern state but Tennessee.
Gore's campaign chairman, Bill Daley, played down the experience factor, telling ABC's ''This Week'' yesterday that ''in today's world, in today's new economy, the length of service or length of time on a job isn't necessarily the only qualification'' for various posts.
Daley also praised Kerry and Lieberman.
Kerry's strength is in his appeal to traditional Democrats, the high-ranking campaign source said, along with his debating ability and political skills. Kerry's Vietnam experience, originally thought to be an asset, was played down by the official as a factor in the selection process.
Lieberman, meanwhile, is still in the running because of his ability to attract moderate and centrist voters, historically the constituency that decides close elections. The campaign official said that some Southerners have told the Gore campaign that they would be completely comfortable with Lieberman on the ticket, even though he is an Orthodox Jew from the Northeast.
But the matter of Lieberman's religion could be an issue, Ed Rendell, the Democratic Party chairman, suggested Saturday night. ''If Joe Lieberman were Episcopalian, he would be a slam-dunk,'' Rendell told reporters after a Long Island fund-raiser.
Daley, speaking on ''This Week,'' insisted that ''religion has no impact whatsoever on his ability not only to be a great vice presidential nominee, but to serve in the office with great distinction.''
Gore made racial and ethnic diversity a theme yesterday morning as he addressed parishioners at Christ Episcopal Church in Sag Harbor.
''This congregation looks like America,'' Gore said. ''A lot of congregations are not. And a lot of institutions in our country are not.''
The comments were made just days after the Republican National Convention, where nominee George W. Bush made an appeal to minority voters, saying the Republicans would help African-Americans and Latinos in the schoolrooms and the workplace.
Gore, who slammed the Republicans Friday for their ''masquerade ball'' of a convention, did not mention Bush or the Republican Party yesterday. Instead, Gore reflected on yesterday's 35th anniversary of the passage of the Civil Rights Act.
Noting that African-Americans were once forced to undergo trick literacy tests to be allowed to vote, including one with the question - ''How many bubbles are there in a bar of soap? - Gore lamented the racism he said still infects the nation.
''This is the kind of banal artifice of evil that has frequently been used to disguise blatant and naked hatred,'' Gore told worshippers at this small, historic church. ''The Voting Rights Act delivered a knockout punch to Jim Crow'' laws, which discriminated against blacks, and ''the effects are still being felt,'' he said.
At the Sag Harbor fund-raiser later in the day, Gore kept to the civil rights theme. He did not publicly utter his current campaign refrain - ''we're for the people; they're for the powerful'' - before the group of wealthy business leaders.
Glen Johnson of the Globe Staff and correspondent Curtis Wilkie contributed to this report.
