here they are, yawping and moaning as if they were the only ones ever to face a contested election. But if Tuesday night was untrampled ground for George W. Bush and Al Gore, Massachusetts has been through this before: the paper-thin margins, the punched-out ballots, the triumphant stage appearances by Hillary Rodham Clinton.
And the uncertainty. Oh, the uncertainty.
For the new-in-town or the memory-impaired, think back to the roller coaster 1996 Democratic primary between then-Norfolk District Attorney William Delahunt and former state human services secretary Philip Johnston.
Johnston was declared the winner by 266 votes, and won a recount by 175. But Delahunt sued to challenge the results, in a case that focused on 765 Weymouth punch card ballots, similar to the ones that have caused such consternation in Florida.
On the day the first lady stumped for Johnston at a Quincy rally, a court ruled in Delahunt's favor. It was all over from there, and Delahunt was reelected to his third term on Tuesday.
Johnston, meanwhile, spent Tuesday night in pain. Now a Gore campaign operative - and a candidate to chair the Massachusetts Democratic Party - he watched election returns with Senator Edward M. Kennedy's crowd and went to bed at 2:30 a.m. Three hours later, he awoke to a call from a friend, who asked, ''Do you know what's going on in Florida?''
So Johnston spent yesterday morning on the phone with the Gore campaign, dispensing advice. Such as, get yourself a good lawyer. Or maybe a team of them.
''It's very important to have aggressive lawyers,'' he said. ''The stakes are too high to avoid court action.''
Delahunt, too, went to sleep believing Bush would carry Florida, and woke up to learn that nothing was certain. The similarities jogged his memory, too; ''I understand punch ballots very well,'' he said. And to both Bush and Gore, he has some words of wisdom: Have faith in the recount, because ''the process will work.''
JOANNA WEISS
