o just who was getting Senator Edward M. Kennedy's support in the vice presidential sweepstakes last week?
Senator John F. Kerry, his junior colleague who was on Al Gore's short list of possible running mates, gushed with thanks to Kennedy for offering advice and assistance as the vice president sorted through his options and Kerry went through the vetting process.
After all, Kennedy had been considered twice as a number two for the Democratic ticket. He knew the potential shortcomings of being in an administration and of having to answer for things out of one's control.
But there were also questions in Washington about whether Kennedy and his aides were equal - if not stronger - advocates for another contender, Senator John Edwards of North Carolina.
One thing fueling the speculation: a line in the Aug. 4 edition of The Wall Street Journal, which said that the Senate minority leader, Tom Daschle, ''began praising Edwards to Gore aides, as did Senators Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts and Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia.''
Then there was the detail that the wife of Bob Shrum, Kennedy's longtime adviser and speechwriter, had taken Edwards' wife out shopping for new clothes a week ago in the event her husband was tapped for the post. Shrum is also a top Gore adviser.
Setting things straight was a Kennedy spokesman, Will Keyser. ''Senator Kennedy made a number of calls on Kerry's behalf to the campaign, including a call as late as Saturday'' to Gore's campaign chairman, William Daley, ''to advocate for John Kerry,'' Keyser said. ''He thought he would have made a great vice president and he told the Gore campaign so.''
In his campaign, Robinson expressly adopting same approach as McCain
Republican renegade Jack E. Robinson has been working hard to get the Senator John McCain crowd on his side in his bid to unseat Kennedy. Not only has he borrowed the talk, embarking on a tour of all 351 Massachusetts cities and towns, and calling it the ''Reform Express.'' He has also decided to put his money where his mouth is - literally - when it comes to campaign finance reform. In the McCain spirit, Robinson announced last week, he won't accept soft money or PAC donations. In a week of fund-raising, Robinson says, he's raised donations and pledges totaling $20,000. Last week, he vowed to raise $7 million in the next three months. That's a lot of individuals to go.
Hub's conventional bid to host party
Still stinging from Beantown's loss to Tinseltown in the competition for the Democratic National Convention, Boston Democrats will start the lobbying effort for the 2004 convention while in Los Angeles. Mayor Thomas M. Menino's deputy chief of staff, Julie Burns, is headed to the convention toting hats and pins that claim ''We'll do more in 2004,'' with the city logo and the mayor's name.
Gubernatorial hopeful sees Lieberman as a positive for his own campaign
Gore's selection of US Senator Joseph I. Lieberman as his running mate has brought a smile to the face of Steven Grossman, the onetime Democratic National Committee chairman who is planning to run for governor of Massachusetts in 2002. Like Lieberman, Grossman is Jewish. And with Lieberman running as the nation's first Jewish candidate for vice president, Grossman is hoping the Connecticut senator's campaign will help put to rest the question of whether Massachusetts is ready for its first Jewish governor. ''I never thought being Jewish was a barrier, but having someone like Joe Lieberman on the national ticket can only be a plus for any Jewish candidate,'' Grossman said last week. Other than Grossman, the only other Jewish candidate to make a serious run for governor was former state attorney general George Fingold, who died of a heart attack in 1958 in the midst of a campaign for the GOP nomination.
Political ruminations in Romania
Everyone knows one of Boston's chief exports is political talent, providing operatives, strategists, and sometimes candidates for national campaigns. Now the trend seems to be spreading further. Boston lawyers Andrew Upton, former aide to state Senator Warren Tolman, and Ken Brown, former State House counsel to Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island, recently flew to Targu Mures, Romania, to host a three-day conference for political party staffers there. Upton and Brown, who work at the Beacon Hill firm Holland and Knight, conducted a seminar on political communications and media. Upon returning to US soil, Upton mused that aspiring Romanian operatives seemed mainly familiar with two American political phenomenons: the dominance of television in campaigns and Monica Lewinsky.
Homework assignment hits close to home for Boston city councilor
Is it a case of life imitating art, or at least of academics imitating politics? A day after city Councilor Paul Scapicchio of the North End called for hearings on the possible regulation of high parking costs in Boston, he received a homework assignment in the economics class he's taking at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. The assignment called for an analysis of Boston's parking costs and what would happen to prices if a federally imposed cap on the number of available spaces was lifted. Apparently unaware of Scapicchio's hearings, the professor simply asked that a three-page essay be ready for tomorrow's class. ''At least it's relevant,'' Scapicchio said.
Heeding advice apparently a tall order
The Boston Redevelopment Authority has faced criticism from the City Council and the Conservation Law Foundation for failing to heed the recommendations of its own consultants to keep heights of new buildings along the South Boston Waterfront as low as possible. And, perhaps more irksome, while the authority tossed aside the advice from the consultants, Cooper, Robertson, and Partners of New York, they paid them handsomely: $400,000.
Glen Johnson, Joanna Weiss, Stephanie Ebbert, Michael Rezendes, Stephen Kurkjian, Steven Wilmsen, and Carolyn Ryan, all of the Globe Staff, contributed to this report.
