ndeterred by embarrassing revelations from his personal life, Republican US Senate hopeful Jack E. Robinson III yesterday pressed ahead with his campaign, making his first speech as a candidate and announcing his campaign staff.
But Robinson, who will challenge Senator Edward M. Kennedy, changed his stance and closed his personal life to public inspection until Kennedy faces the same scrutiny.
''No more double-standards, no more unilateral disarmament,'' Robinson said before the campaign speech. ''I am not going to answer any more questions about my personal life until the senator answers questions about his. That ends today.''
A millionaire businessman with two Harvard graduate degrees, Robinson said he will act as his own campaign manager until he has qualified for the GOP primary ballot. He has hired a professional firm to help him gather 10,000 certified signatures by next month.
Robinson's deputy campaign manager is William F. Rivers, 21, who was an office clerk at the Massachusetts Republican headquarters until he quit last Friday. Ian Bayne, another state GOP activist, has agreed to be Robinson's campaign consultant.
''The campaign team is on the ground, the signature gatherers are on the ground, and we are running fervishly to meet the May 9 deadline,'' Robinson said.
Although he believes a credible race against Kennedy could cost up to $8 million - and has pledged to spend $1 million of his own cash - Robinson said he would not begin fund-raising until he has qualified for the ballot.
Last night, he made his first campaign speech, addressing a joint gathering of the Massachusetts Republican Society and the Greater Boston Young Republicans at the Parker House.
His moves come less than two weeks after Robinson, a political neophyte, was roughed up by the media and the state GOP establishment in the wake of revelations from his past - including some by his own admission - that would have knocked most candidates out of a race.
A former girlfriend took out a restraining order against him in 1998, alleging in a sworn statement that Robinson forced her to have sex with him. Another woman told the Globe he made unwanted sexual advances on a blind date.
As a student at Harvard Business School in 1985, Robinson had been arrested on drunken driving charges. The charges were dropped after he passed a breath analysis test, but he was charged with carrying a dangerous weapon - a martial arts device called a Shuriken star - that was found in his jacket during the search. The case was continued for year.
Also, a federal judge ruled that Robinson, a former airline executive, had violated copyright laws when he used large sections of another author's book in his similar book about the rise and fall of Pan American World Airways. The book has not been published.
Governor Paul Cellucci, who had initially embraced Robinson as the candidate to lead the state's GOP ticket this fall, quickly withdrew his support.
He called the allegations ''disturbing'' and said Robinson had not adequately addressed them.
Robinson, 39, joined the race last month after Plymouth District Attorney Michael Sullivan, Cellucci's first choice for the longshot bid against Kennedy, bowed out.
