On debate circuit, Wake Forest comes up short on its delivery

By Globe Staff, 10/15/2000

George W. Bush may not have liked the protesters, and Al Gore probably was still trying to forget his heavy sighs caught on microphone, but the more than 1,000 media members covering this year's presidential debates had very fond memories of the first face-off in Boston after their experiences in North Carolina for the second.

At the University of Massachusetts at Boston, reporters and campaign aides had plenty of space at Clark Athletic Center. The phones, power plugs, and TVs all worked as promised.

Not so last week at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C.

The debate was held in Wait Chapel, a beautiful church. Reporters worked out of Benson University Center, an overwhelmed recreation hall. The Gore traveling press was relegated to the basement; the Bush group worked on the first floor. Most of the media was assigned to a room on the second floor; the rest spilled into several anterooms.

The biggest problem was the phones: They simply didn't work, prompting some organizations like USA Today and The Washington Post to pull up stakes and head for local hotels. The problems were corrected about a half-hour before the debate, but the absurdity of the situation was summed up when one harried BellSouth technician told reporters that ''everything should be fine as long as you don't all use your telephones at once.''

It had some of them yearning for UMass President William Bulger to make the trains run on time.

Cardinal sees a one-issue candidate

Although most Catholics in Massachusetts - and, if history is any guide, most Catholics in the United States - are likely to vote for Democrat Al Gore for president next month, it seems clear that Cardinal Bernard F. Law of Boston will not.

Law penned a column for The Pilot, the archdiocesan newspaper, in which he wrote about his experience watching one of the presidential debates.

''How depressing to hear the vice president speak so explicitly on his pro-abortion position,'' Law wrote. ''He seems to have made his a one-issue party.''

This is at least the second time Law has used his column to criticize Gore. And Bishop William F. Murphy has also weighed in on the election in the pages of The Pilot, writing: ''I fail to understand how any Catholic can support a candidate who is outspokenly and unambiguously prochoice.''

Speaker keeps his leanings secret, but report says he's `bullish' on Bush

Speaking of Republican leanings, House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran 's comments after the first presidential debate in Boston provided more evidence for his liberal Democratic critics that Mistah Speakah's sympathies are with the GOP. The State House News Service reported that the Mattapan Democrat declined to say for whom he'd vote in the presidential election, doubted that a Gore presidency would be ''unequivocally an upside for Massachusetts,'' and was ''bullish'' on the idea of Republican Bush as president. Hmmmm.

Gift from Philip Morris draws fire

Cigarette manufacturer Phi lip Morris set off a fire of sorts in New Bedford after giving the city thousands of book covers adorned with the company logo and photographs of schoolchildren.

Denise Gaudette, a supervisor of health education for New Bedford Public Schools, equated the book covers to infiltration by the enemy, and called them ''a backhanded plug for their name and the product they manufacture.''

Senate Ways and Means chairman Mark Montigny, a New Bedford Democrat, said the tobacco industry is looking for ways to target children despite the national settlement that is supposed to make it more difficult for them to do so.

''We should not assist them,'' Montigny said, ''in this duplicitous marketing campaign.''

In race for Democratic Party chair, the field has narrowed to two

The race for the state Democratic Party chair is a bit easier to predict now that Middlesex Sheriff James V. DiPaola of Malden dropped out and endorsed his main rival, Phil Johnston of Marshfield, who narrowly lost a congressional bid four years ago.

All that is needed to win the seat being vacated by chairwoman Joan Menard is support from a majority of the state committee's 325 members during a Nov. 14 meeting. Johnston said he believes that DiPaola's withdrawal will boost his pledged votes to 200. The only other contender is Representative Harold P. Naughton Jr. of Clinton, who has earned the unfortunate nickname ''Not Naughton.''

But Johnston is not banking on the numbers just yet. ''Given what happened to me the last time in my congressional race, I don't take anything for granted,'' he said.

'Sly's' gift provides cover for Cellucci

One brisk day last week, Governor Paul Cellucci needed a jacket to attend a press conference at the foot of the State House steps. The only trouble was, he had not worn an overcoat to work.

Thinking quickly, Cellucci reached for a trusty brown-leather bomber jacket with a Planet Hollywood/Boston emblem on the back and, in miniature, on the front. The coat hangs in his office in case of a sartorial ''emergency.''

''Sly gave it to me,'' Cellucci said.

Indeed, ''Rocky'' star Sylvester Stallone presented the jacket to the governor when Planet Hollywood broke ground for one of its theme restaurants on Boylston Street in the Back Bay. But the restaurant never materialized because the company took a financial hit.

However, because the jacket's value likely exceeds the limit for gifts public officials are permitted to accept under state ethics law, when Cellucci leaves office, he'll have to reimburse Sly for it.

''Or,'' the governor suggested, ''donate it to the state archives.''

All donations are gratefully accepted by prospective Red Sox ownership

The tip bowl on the counter at the State House coffee shop has grown to mammoth Jethro proportions. And yet, it may not be big enough.

A small sign taped to the side of the stainless steel vessel explains why: ''We want to buy the Red Sox.''

Globe Staffers Glen Johnson, Michael Paulson, Brian C. Mooney, and Tina Cassidy contributed to this report.