Aides Say He Wants to Act as Counter to Bush, and Possibly Run in 2008
'Fired Up' Kerry Returning to Senate
Aides Say He Wants to Act as Counter to Bush, and Possibly Run in 2008
By Mike AllenWashington Post Staff WriterTuesday, November 9, 2004;
Democrat John F. Kerry plans to use his Senate seat and long lists of supporters to remain a major voice in American politics despite losing the presidential race last Tuesday, and he is assessing the feasibility of trying again in 2008, friends and aides said yesterday.
Kerry will attend a post-election lame-duck Senate session that begins next week and has said he is "fired up" to play a highly visible role, the friends and aides said.
Aides said Kerry is relishing the prospect of renewed combat with President Bush, fighting such measures as the president's proposal to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. Kerry has spent most of the past two years on the campaign trail, meaning that his return to Capitol Hill will be something of a reintroduction to colleagues.
Kerry's plans contrast starkly with the approach taken by former vice president Al Gore, who all but disappeared from the political scene after losing to Bush in the disputed 2000 presidential election.
Kerry fueled talk about a 2008 bid during remarks at a Washington restaurant Saturday night. He provoked a thunderous reaction by reminding about 400 campaign aides and volunteers that Ronald Reagan twice sought the Republican nomination for president before winning it in 1980.
"Sometimes God tests you," Kerry told the crowd at H20, a restaurant on the Potomac waterfront, according to an aide. "I'm a fighter, and I've come back before."
Read more here:
http://kerrylibrary.forumflash.com/index.php?showtopic=246
Aides Say He Wants to Act as Counter to Bush, and Possibly Run in 2008
By Mike AllenWashington Post Staff WriterTuesday, November 9, 2004;
Democrat John F. Kerry plans to use his Senate seat and long lists of supporters to remain a major voice in American politics despite losing the presidential race last Tuesday, and he is assessing the feasibility of trying again in 2008, friends and aides said yesterday.
Kerry will attend a post-election lame-duck Senate session that begins next week and has said he is "fired up" to play a highly visible role, the friends and aides said.
Aides said Kerry is relishing the prospect of renewed combat with President Bush, fighting such measures as the president's proposal to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. Kerry has spent most of the past two years on the campaign trail, meaning that his return to Capitol Hill will be something of a reintroduction to colleagues.
Kerry's plans contrast starkly with the approach taken by former vice president Al Gore, who all but disappeared from the political scene after losing to Bush in the disputed 2000 presidential election.
Kerry fueled talk about a 2008 bid during remarks at a Washington restaurant Saturday night. He provoked a thunderous reaction by reminding about 400 campaign aides and volunteers that Ronald Reagan twice sought the Republican nomination for president before winning it in 1980.
"Sometimes God tests you," Kerry told the crowd at H20, a restaurant on the Potomac waterfront, according to an aide. "I'm a fighter, and I've come back before."
Read more here:
http://kerrylibrary.forumflash.com/index.php?showtopic=246
posted by Pamela J. Leavey at 11:45 PM
7 Comments:
Kerry run in '08 called conceivable
Brother says senator eyes leadership role
By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff | November 9, 2004
While Senator John F. Kerry is "profoundly disappointed" with losing his presidential race last week, it is "conceivable" he will run again in four years, his brother and political confidant, Cameron F. Kerry, said yesterday.
In the meantime, the former Democratic nominee will work through the Senate and perhaps a newly formed political action committee to ensure that Democrats have a superior ground organization in 2008, his younger brother said.
"He's in a position of national leadership," Cameron F. Kerry told the Globe. A Boston lawyer, the younger Kerry said he spoke with his brother several times in person and by phone about the senator's political future since the candidate conceded defeat Wednesday. "He's going to exercise that role and be a voice for the 55 million people who voted for him. The position he's in gives him a bully pulpit."
He added, "One of the things that John brings out of this campaign is a tremendous number of people have gotten organized, and that's something we've got to build upon."
Asked whether that might include another run for president, the younger brother replied: "That's conceivable. . . . I don't know why that [last week's loss] should necessarily be it. I think it's too early to assess. But I think that he is going to continue to fight on for the values, ideals, and issues this campaign is about."
The senator has not granted an interview since he conceded the race to President Bush. He was in Washington yesterday, but out of public view.
Kerry's Senate communications director, David Wade, said: "John Kerry has been touched by the outpouring of support and enthusiasm in Massachusetts and around the country. There are millions upon millions of Americans who want the same change for our country that he fought for, and he has a voice in the Senate and nationally to champion these causes."
Asked whether Kerry was considering another presidential run, Wade said: "He has a job to do for Massachusetts in the United States Senate and issues to champion nationally. That's his focus."
Former aides said they have received conflicting answers about whether he might wage another campaign. One, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Kerry told a top campaign official he could not envision another run. Yet that same adviser attended a farewell party for Kerry's staff Saturday night in Washington and said Kerry told the crowd, "There's always another four years."
The remark triggered an eruption of cheers.
Such a run could pose a dilemma for Kerry: His Senate seat is up for reelection in 2008, and talk of a presidential campaign could spur challengers from both parties and force him to decide whether to seek reelection or run for the White House. He also would undoubtedly face Democratic challengers for the presidential nomination, including possibly Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and his recent running mate, Senator John Edwards of North Carolina.
Kerry would also face the challenges of history and age. He will be 64 in 2008, one year younger than Ronald Reagan when he ran for president in 1976. Reagan narrowly lost to Gerald Ford in the primaries and then successfully challenged Jimmy Carter for the presidency in 1980.
The last Democratic nominee for president to run a second consecutive time as the party's standard bearer was Adlai Stevenson, who lost to Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952. Stevenson was renominated in 1956 and defeated by President Eisenhower in the general election. The only candidate in the 20th century to be the party's nominee and lose the White House and then run successfully in a future election was Republican Richard M. Nixon, who was defeated by John F. Kennedy in 1960 and then beat Hubert H. Humphrey in 1968. Humphrey ran again for the Democratic nomination in 1972, but withdrew in the face of overwhelming odds at the party's convention.
In the meantime, Kerry is weighing whether to start a political action committee to advance his ideals. He used a similar account, the Citizen Soldier Fund, to support Democratic candidates for state offices and operations in Iowa and New Hampshire in advance of his just-completed race.
Bush won last week's election by a margin of 3.5 million votes -- 59.4 million to 55.9 million. The tallies were the two highest ever received in a presidential race. The incumbent president received 286 Electoral College votes to Kerry's 252. Bush claimed victory after winning Ohio by a margin of 136,000 votes.
While exit polls indicated Bush beat Kerry by a wide margin among voters who declared that morals and leadership were most important to them in a president, Karl Rove, the president's chief political strategist, said Sunday on "Meet the Press" that Bush won by first convincing voters he would be stronger in the war on terror and a better custodian of the economy through a program of expanded tax cuts.
Rove had a strategy of turning out more votes from the president's base, including Christian conservatives, and Democrats have said in recent days that is what won the race for Bush in Ohio, an economically ailing state that has lost more than 260,000 jobs during his term.
The former aide said Kerry plans to work closely with Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, who is expected to replace Tom Daschle as Senate Democratic leader, to form the "loyal opposition" to Bush. He also plans to revamp his staff and meet this week with Senate and former campaign aides to plot strategy for his political reemergence. The Senate returns to business in a lame duck session next week, and Kerry is determined to have an agenda when he steps back into public view.
Toward that end, "he has been working the phones like crazy," the aide said, and "is determined that he will never let Democrats get beaten again on the ground game."
While there had been some speculation that Kerry might challenge Reid for the Senate leadership, two top Kerry advisers said he has already thrown his support behind Reid.
Cameron F. Kerry said that while last week's results left his brother "profoundly disappointed," "I think he feels in many respects good. I think many people feel good about his performance in this race. I think he feels like he did what he had to do. But I think he's really looking ahead -- at the next steps -- and not dwelling on what might have been."
He said that in their weekend conversations, John Kerry "talked about next steps" and "how to be a voice."
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/11/09/kerry_run_in_08_called_conceivable/
Patti, Floridadem
I have some ideas I am kicking around with a couple of other K Bloggers on the "values" theme/meme... more to come soon I hope.
In the meantime, those of us commited to continuing to work with JK will stick around and start working towards the future. I believe that what JK does over the next years in the Senate will shape the next race and make it clear that we will once again be the best choice.
kerrygoddess
Marcus
Hillary is wonderful but I don't see it happening for reasons I will not lay out here.
It IS time for Dems to stop whinning publicly. Just like those unnamed sources hurt us in the media when they spoke anonomously to the media, the whinners and complainers were of no help either on the K Blog. That in itislef was the main reason I continually urged Bloggers not to go there!
We will perservere. I too still have JK's back and will continue to!
kerrygoddess
Hi Marcus
I'm glad to see Olbermann is on top of the voter fraud story and he seems to think that the mainstream media will be following suit.
There's not way of telling what the outcome will be be. I have a feeling the hush (dem party) is for a reason at this point.
Marcus
Definately interested!
You can email me. Click on my username and you'll find a contact link.
Bob Evans has been in touch, he's heading to DC to be at the Wall on Vet's Day.
I am happy to hear about John Kerry again. I certainly hope he will hold a leadership role in the future though I think it is too early to talk about running again (for anybody, not only him).
However, what I would like Senator Kerry and other democrats do is to build a local network of grassroots that will help them win back the country. It seems to me that the networks the Republicans have built throughout the years are a lot more efficient that the ones that have been built by MoveOn and ACT. This is largely due to the force of peer pressure. You can be persuaded more easily by your network doing that throughout the years than by somebody who drops off from a blue state for a two month period and does not know necessarily your problems, how well intentionned they may be.
This should be the primary task to be done now, as well as defining the message (though I liked the message of this campaign and think it just needs to be finely adjusted rather than totally changed to the right).
THE NATION
2008 Run Among Kerry's Options
Associates say he is positioning himself for power, and perhaps one more White House bid.
By Peter Wallsten, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON — Less than a week after conceding defeat to President Bush, Sen. John F. Kerry is calling key Democratic donors to lay the groundwork for a political organization that would give him a voice in national politics and position him for another White House run in 2008, close associates say.
His friends, contributors and former campaign aides say he was energized by winning almost 56 million votes — more than any other candidate in U.S. history, except for Bush — and intends to wield influence as the titular leader of the Democratic Party.
Kerry confidants said in interviews Monday that key members of the campaign's finance team were planning to remain loyal to the 2004 nominee — even as potential 2008 contenders such as Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and John Edwards of North Carolina begin building support — in case he decides to run.
Those sentiments differ significantly from the attitudes expressed after Democratic losses in 1988 and 2000, when pressure mounted on nominees Michael S. Dukakis and Al Gore to step aside after what many party leaders considered error-plagued campaigns.
"After 1988 and 2000, there was a different sort of tone in the fundraising community," said Robert Farmer, who was campaign treasurer for Dukakis in 1988 and Kerry this year. "They felt they had been let down. I don't get that sense now."
Unlike those campaigns, Farmer said, Kerry continues to enjoy loyalty among his key supporters. Farmer compared Kerry with two presidents who lost in their first bids for the job.
"There's a tradition," Farmer said. "Nixon ran and lost and then won, Reagan ran and lost, then won. In this case, you'll have to look at the field and say to yourself, 'Could another candidate have won states that John Kerry didn't win?' And my sense is that I don't think anybody could have done much better than John Kerry did."
Robert B. Crowe, a Kerry fundraiser and longtime friend, declined to say whether Kerry had talked with him about another presidential bid — but Crowe said the finance team wasn't going anywhere yet.
"We intend to stay together," Crowe said. "I'm with him. I've been with him for 30 years."
He added, "John Kerry is not going to fade away."
Another major fundraiser, Boston businessman Alan Solomont, said Kerry called him last week to express his interest in remaining a player on the national stage.
"The senator's standing and stature have increased enormously," Solomont said. "He's anxious to play a leadership role."
A move by Kerry to solidify support so soon after what friends describe as a devastating loss reflects a conundrum for the Massachusetts senator, who has four years left in his term.
Despite being selected by his party as the nation's potential 44th president, he returns to work next week as the junior senator from Massachusetts. With Republicans in control of the Senate, he is not likely to be a committee chairman, and the party's most powerful national player is the prospective incoming Senate minority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada.
At a campaign staff party over the weekend at a Washington restaurant, Kerry discussed his intention to remain engaged. And although he did not specifically mention another White House bid, strategists familiar with his thinking said he was interested in exploring that potential.
Kerry has told advisors, for instance, that he hopes to have a say in the selection of the next Democratic National Committee chairman, although the advisors would not say whom Kerry favored for that post. The term of the current chairman, Terry McAuliffe, a longtime supporter and fundraiser for former President Clinton, expires early next year.
Kerry's plans, associates say, include using a political action committee or similar organization to raise money over the next two years for Democratic senatorial and gubernatorial candidates across the country. Such a committee would also give Kerry a national platform to test his future viability.
"It would allow him, as a byproduct of staying on the stage in the Democratic Party, the opportunity to make a decision about his own future at a later date," one of the strategists said.
Some leading Democrats have expressed discomfort in recent days with nominating a candidate from the Northeast in 2008, suggesting that the party needs a leader who can woo support from voters in Republican-leaning states.
Some have said the party should look past Kerry or Sen. Clinton to lesser-known contenders, such as Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner and North Carolina Gov. Michael F. Easley.
Despite Kerry's lofty vote total, he still finished 3.5 million votes behind Bush, a president many Democrats considered vulnerable.
And although Democrats and independent groups tried to mobilize voters, the electoral map changed little from the 2000 results, with Republican-leaning states generally remaining red and the Democratic states generally staying blue.
Kerry's decision to maintain a high profile adds another wrinkle to what is shaping up as a major battle for the future of the Democratic Party following Bush's win and the GOP's expanded majorities in both houses of Congress.
One of Kerry's presidential primary foes, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, is reportedly interested in seeking the party chairmanship — a development that could put the party far to the left of where many leaders think it could best sway voters in states that backed Bush.
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/2004/la-na-kerry9nov09,1,5545396.story?coll=la-news-elect2004
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