UMass-Boston, Kennedy Library insist they're 'neutral' sites

By Adam Pertman, Globe Staff, 8/30/2000

he sponsors of the first proposed presidential debate adamantly rejected suggestions yesterday that the University of Massachusetts in Boston doesn't constitute ''neutral territory'' because it adjoins the John F. Kennedy Library.

Officials at the two institutions reacted cautiously to the shots reportedly aimed their way by aides to Governor George W. Bush. The officials said they did not want to be drawn into a political contretemps or be viewed as taking sides.

UMass-Boston was chosen by the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates as the venue for the first of three debates between Bush and Al Gore. Gore has accepted the offer, while Bush says it is one of many he is considering.

The Kennedy Library is cosponsoring the Oct. 3 event and putting together educational programs leading up to it.

''It's totally ... absolutely neutral territory,'' said Tom McNaught, the Kennedy Library spokesman. He pointed out that Bush's father, the former president, recently had been honored at the library as a Distinguished American, receiving an inscribed bronze bust of the slain president from Kennedy's daughter, Caroline.

The UMass spokeswoman, Annmarie Lewis-Kerwin, also underscored her institution's nonpartisanship. She added that preparations hadn't been slowed by the brouhaha because the commission had assured university officials that the event will take place on schedule.

Gore repeatedly has said he would participate in all three nationally televised, prime-time events - and in just about any other head-to-head confrontation anyone wants to hold. The Democrat's campaign chairman, William M. Daley, sent a letter to the commission yesterday formally accepting the debate schedule.

Bush and his advisers, on the other hand, have expressed reservations about both the planned format and venues.

Media accounts about Bush's apparent problems with the commission's debate proposals have appeared since mid-August, even as growing numbers of Americans have been turning their attention to the presidential campaign since the two parties' nominating conventions.

The issue was revisited yesterday in an article in The New York Times that said Bush was balking at the commission's plans because the three debates would be aired in prime time by the major networks.

The article said Bush officials had complained about holding a debate on the UMass campus because it is so near the library of a Democratic president. ''At face value,'' the Times quoted one official as saying, ''it seems difficult to argue that it's neutral territory.''

Bush yesterday derided as ''ridiculous'' the notion that he wanted to avoid prime-time debates. ''I want as many people to watch our debates as possible,'' he told reporters.

The GOP candidate did not directly address the issue of UMass's location. But a spokesman, Ray Sullivan, later dismissed as ''patently false'' any suggestion that the Bush camp might consider the university to be an unfair site.

Sullivan said in a telephone interview that Bush is ''seriously considering'' offers to debate at more than 40 locations, with a variety of formats. Asked specifically about the UMass issue, Sullivan replied: ''We do not have a problem with any of the venues'' proposed by the commission on debates.

In addition to the Boston site, the commission has scheduled presidential debates for Oct. 11 at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., and for Oct. 17 at Washington University in St. Louis. Among the private contributors to the Boston event are Fidelity Investments, Fleet Financial, The Boston Globe, and the Boston Herald.

Gore's campaign seized on the Times account about Bush yesterday.

''Their problem is that when people learn about both candidates and their plans for the future, they invariably agree more with Gore than with Bush,'' said a Gore spokesman, Doug Hattaway. ''So they're grasping for excuses to avoid prime-time debates.''

Glen Johnson and Anne E. Kornblut of the Globe Staff contributed to this report from Portland, Maine, and Albuquerque, respectively.