Kerry presidential bid unlikely, advisers say

By Jill Zuckman, Globe Staff, February 25, 1999

Key advisers to Senator John F. Kerry said they expect the senator to tell supporters in Boston this weekend that he will not enter the 2000 race for president.

"Nobody is of the view that he's going to say he's going to run for president," said one longtime adviser who asked to remain anonymous.

After months of hand-wringing and intense conversations with potential financial backers, Kerry has not relayed a final decision to anyone in his large inner circle.

But key advisers in Boston and Washington have grown increasingly doubtful that Kerry will move ahead with a campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Kerry's communications director, Jim Jordan, flew into Boston last night, an indication that an announcement is imminent. Jordan could not be reached for comment.

Privately, Kerry backers have said that he waited too long to investigate the possibility of a presidential run and that he does not have enough time to mount a credible challenge against Vice President Al Gore.

While many politicians spent much of the last year or two meeting with activists in New Hampshire and Iowa, Kerry did not. When Senators Bob Kerrey of Nebraska and Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, both Democrats, said they would not run at the end of last year and the beginning of this year, respectively, Kerry was only just beginning to investigate the possibility of a presidential campaign.

Over the course of the last two months, Kerry never visited Iowa, the preeminent caucus state. And his two visits to New Hampshire, the first-in-the-nation primary state, were cursory at best.

Many Democratic activists never received so much as a phone call from Kerry. Gore, on the other hand, scooped up major supporters, while former New Jersey senator Bill Bradley has attracted attention from Democrats who are less prominent in their party.

But Kerry and his aides have argued vehemently that lining up activists was the least pressing need. At the top of the list, Kerry was trying to come up with a rationale for his candidacy against Gore, and he was trying to line up financial backing.

Last week, Kerry traveled across the country to fund-raising events, working to pay off the debt from his 1996 Senate race against William Weld. At the same time, he spoke to Democratic money-raisers about whether they would help him pull together the approximately $20 million necessary to run for president. In Boston, however, many of his most ardent financial supporters, such as Alan Solomont, Elaine Schuster, and Steve Grossman, had told him that they were committed to Gore.

William Verge, the Rockingham County Democratic chairman, has been talking up Kerry's candidacy in New Hampshire. Last night, he said he is not sure what Kerry will do, though he said he knows that "the word on the street is he's not going to run."

Following an afternoon conversation with Kerry, Verge said, "He doesn't want to get in unless he thinks he can win."

During a recent appearance on CNN's "Inside Politics," Kerry appeared to be talking himself out of a presidential bid as he discussed Gore's financial and political advantages. "It would be stupid to step up and run if there was no way to clarify to people the difference between myself and others," Kerry said.