ASHINGTON - Vice President Al Gore has tapped the Democratic establishment in Massachusetts for an impressive haul of money and supporters, but Bill Bradley's strength in the national race for resources is reflected in the state as well, according to federal election reports.
Although Gore has locked up most of the state's formidable collection of big Democratic donors, Bradley's insurgent campaign is drawing money from a wide array of old friends and admirers - new contributors and Democrats who think the party needs a change in leadership after recent years of scandal.
Capitalizing on his position, Gore leads Bradley by almost 2-to-1 margins in the number of contributors and the amount of money raised in Massachusetts.
Gore has raised $550,000 from 706 contributors in Massachusetts, according to a computer analysis of Federal Election Commission records performed for the Globe by the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based good-government group. Bradley has collected $301,000 in the state from 374 contributors.
''People who have been active in the Democratic Party and active in campaigns in Massachusetts for the last decade have a lot of support for what the Clinton-Gore administration has accomplished,'' said Charles A. Baker, an attorney and political consultant active in the Gore campaign. ''The vice president has been the beneficiary of that support.''
Most of the deep-pocketed donors and fund-raisers from Massachusetts are in Gore's camp. Included on this list are the former party chairman and current Massachusetts Envelope Co. executive, Steven Grossman; John P. Manning of Boston Capital Corp.; the venture capitalist Thomas H. Lee; Gerald and Elaine Schuster, both party stalwarts; Fred Siegel of Energy Capital Partners; nursing home operator and former DNC finance chair Alan Solomont; and Viacom's Sumner Redstone.
Bradley's supporters, in part by necessity, take pride in the fact that, as former congressman James Shannon puts it, ''Bradley money is not Democratic establishment money. These are not the usual fund-raisers.
''A lot of the people supporting Bradley are people new to politics - a lot from the financial sector - people who feel they can play more of a role in an insurgent campaign,'' said Shannon, a leading Bradley supporter in the state.
A former legislator, Michael Harrington, said that Bradley's Massachusetts backers are an ''eclectic'' group, attracted to the former New Jersey senator for a variety of reasons. Some donors are longtime friends and admirers, like MIT's Lester Thurow. Others see an opportunity to make a bigger splash in an underdog campaign. Some contributors, former Celtics great John Havlicek, Celtics coach Rick Pitino, and New England Patriots executive J.A. Kraft, for example, have roots, like Bradley, in the world of sports.
And some of Bradley's backers, looking at polls that show Gore running behind Texas Republican Governor George W. Bush, think Democrats need to move beyond the scandal-plagued image of the Clinton-Gore years.
''There is a mild degree of disenchantment with the existing order, with the Clinton-Gore administration, though with some acknowledgment that Gore isn't culpable, just there on the scene,'' said Harrington, a Bradley supporter. ''People are looking for a fresh face.''
''I don't think that anybody is specifically against Gore; there is no sense of animus. But there is definite scandal weariness out there,'' said Shannon.
Gore leads Bradley in the national fund-raising competition, collecting $19.5 million to Bradley's $11.7 million. But Bradley's supporters find solace in the Gore campaign's spending habits. Bradley has been far more frugal, having spent $4.3 million, compared with $8.2 million spent by Gore.
''They can't help themselves. It's the trappings of incumbency. Fritz Mondale suffered the same thing with Gary Hart,'' said Harrington of the vice president's campaign in 1984.
Among the prominent figures who have contributed to Gore are former Governor Michael Dukakis, former Lieutenant Governor Thomas P. O'Neill III, former Dukakis administration officials John De Villars, Philip Johnston and Nicholas Mitropoulos, and former Clinton administration figures Stuart Altman, Robert Reich, Thomas Glynn and Deval Patrick.
Two lawyers with close ties to Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Paul Kirk and Nick Littlefield, gave the $1,000 maximum contribution to Gore, as did US Representative John Olver, Democrat of Amherst; Cathleen Douglas Stone; Swanee Hunt; The New Republic publisher Martin Peretz and his wife Anne; state Senator Linda Melconian; and a collection of lawyers, lobbyists, and Beacon Hill veterans that include Baker, Charles Campion, and Michael Whouley of the Dewey Square Group; George Bachrach; Cassidy & Associates vice-chairman John Brennan; Chris Gabrieli; Thomas Joyce; Patricia McGovern; and James Rowan.
In the Bradley camp, the best known donors and fund-raisers are lawyers James Segel and Dennis Kanin; developer Ronald Druker; and Kevin Phelan of Meredith & Grew, Inc. Democratic national committeewoman Virginia Allan; Delphi Management's Scott Black; computer executives Charles Cuneo; John Moriarty and Michael Daitzman and Fleet Bank President John Hamill. Harvard Professors Philip Heymann and Cornel West and Staples executive Thomas Stemberg are also on the list.
