f Al Gore decides to pick a running mate with the kind of heavy-hitting sobriety that George W. Bush sought in Dick Cheney, he could reach for George Mitchell, the former Senate majority leader who successfully guided the Northern Ireland peace talks.
But a Mitchell candidacy would also carry with it a major complication: ties to the major American tobacco companies, which have brought millions of dollars annually to the Washington law firm he now calls home.
''I find it peculiar that someone as respected and with the stature of George Mitchell would go to work for the tobacco companies that make a product that kills 400,000 Americans every year,'' said Charles Lewis, executive director of the Center for Public Integrity, an ethics group. ''I just hope they're paying him a lot to tarnish his otherwise impressive credentials.''
While Gore aides won't say who is being considered for the vice presidential spot, Mitchell is being praised by some prominent Democrats, including President Clinton.
Mitchell's work for the tobacco industry has been rarely mentioned. When Philip Morris Cos., R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., and Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co., among others, found their livelihoods threatened a few years ago by antitobacco activists, they turned to just about every prominent lobbyist they could find, Republican and Democrat.
The venerable law firm of Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson & Hand offered strategic advice from two of the Senate's most experienced alumni - Mitchell, the Democrat who represented Maine for 15 years, and Bob Dole, the former Senate Republican leader from Kansas.
The firm took in $10.6 million from tobacco companies in 1996 and $8.9 million in 1998, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a campaign-finance watchdog group. So far this year, Verner Liipfert has collected $4.8 million from the companies.
''Most of Senator Mitchell's record is very good. This smoking thing was a major blot on his record,'' said John Banzhaf, the executive director of Action on Smoking and Health, an antismoking group.
Mitchell did not return telephone calls seeking comment.
According to key figures in the tobacco legislation and litigation saga, Mitchell played an active role reaching out to Democrats and public health groups to bring them to the negotiating table. At the first major meeting of all parties at a Washington-area hotel, Mitchell welcomed participants and opened discussion.
''My personal impression was he used his stature and his credibility to try to provide sufficient credibility to the tobacco companies' overture to organizations like mine and the state attorneys general,'' said Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Myers said he received a phone call from Mitchell to persuade him to join the negotiations.
As the cigarette manufacturers became increasingly unhappy with tobacco legislation pending in the Senate, their lobbyists helped stop the measure in its tracks.
The tobacco industry then turned to the state attorneys general, cutting a separate deal to pay the states $368 billion in exchange for immunity from future lawsuits.
Mitchell's connection to the tobacco industry could be a problem for Gore, who has had an off-and-on relationship with tobacco, and who employs Carter Eskew, the media strategist who once crafted the cigarette industry's multimillion-dollar advertising campaign against a tobacco tax.
At the 1996 Democratic convention in Chicago, Gore gave an emotional speech detailing his sister Nancy's ''unbearable pain'' as she lay dying of lung cancer from the cigarettes she began smoking at age 13.
But Gore continued taking campaign contributions from the tobacco industry even after his sister's death in 1984. As a presidential candidate in 1988, he opposed restrictions on tobacco advertising and defended tobacco farmers.
These days, Gore frequently speaks of his desire to prevent youngsters from starting to smoke and the need to restrict tobacco advertising directed at children.
''Given the vice president's controversial past with tobacco, given the snafus over his speech in Chicago and over his own media adviser, it would seem ill-advised to make a vice presidential selection that revives the tobacco issue,'' said one Democratic official.
''Al Gore has stated three criteria for his running mate,'' said Douglas Hattaway, a campaign spokesman. ''He's looking for someone who could take over at a moment's notice if necessary, who can work closely with him as a partner, and who can join him in taking on the powerful special interests.''
Whether Mitchell would fulfill the final criterion is up to Gore. The vice president, aides say, will announce his choice of a running mate sometime after the Republicans wrap up their convention in Philadelphia.
