Running mate pick imminent
FOX CHAPEL, Pa. — Sen. John Kerry is expected to announce his choice for a running mate as the Democratic Party’s nominee for vice president at a 9 a.m. rally today in Pittsburgh, according to several Democratic insiders close to rumored contenders for his nod.
The chosen candidate then will fly to Pittsburgh to join Kerry for a two-day campaign swing, they said. A Kerry campaign spokesman refused to confirm or deny the plan.
One prime contender, Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, cut short a family vacation in Orlando, Fla., last Thursday to meet secretly with Kerry in Washington, according to Democratic Party officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. The revelation fueled feverish speculation that Edwards may be Kerry’s choice.
Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri and Gov. Tom Vilsack of Iowa also were at the top of Kerry’s short list of likely finalists, according to a consensus of Democratic officials and insiders, although half-a-dozen other names also continued to be bandied about as dark-horse candidates, and Kerry’s staff has been careful to neither confirm nor deny any names.
The political world was in a frenzy of speculation Monday over whom Kerry would select. Kerry huddled with top advisers at the Heinz family estate here Monday afternoon and appeared close to announcing his choice.
People close to Gephardt said they had heard nothing from the Kerry camp Monday, but they had been contacted by operatives close to Vilsack, asking what they had heard.
Kerry said that nobody knew anything.
“I’ll just tell you that I’ve made no decision at this point in time, and I’m going to continue to keep it a private, personal process until I am ready to announce it publicly,” Kerry said in an interview with WTAE-TV, the ABC affiliate in Pittsburgh, after hosting a picnic for Democrats at the Heinz estate, known as Rosemont.
“I’m not going to answer the questions about timing, I’m going to do what I’ve said all along, which is to do it on my own schedule,” Kerry said.
Kerry could always make a surprise pick — the last several vice presidential selections in both parties were not prominent on short lists before they were tapped.
Edwards, however, is the clear favorite of many Democratic Party activists across the country. He contested the presidential primaries longer than anyone besides Kerry and struck a nerve with many Democrats with his eloquent vision of “two Americas” — one for the wealthy and the other for the great mass of ordinary Americans.
Edwards, 51, possesses youthful good looks and a charismatic appeal that many Democrats say could add electricity to a ticket headed by the more-somber Kerry. Yet his relative lack of experience — especially in foreign affairs and national security — after only five years’ service in the Senate following decades as a trial attorney, raises reservations about whether he is ready to serve a heartbeat away from the presidency in an era of terrorism.
Other names said by various Democratic insiders to be on Kerry’s mind include: Sens. Bob Graham and Bill Nelson of Florida; Evan Bayh of Indiana; and Joseph Biden of Delaware, although he said through a spokesman Monday that he had not heard from Kerry and did not expect to be chosen.
Standing on a stack of hay bales draped in red-white-and blue bunting, Kerry told the guests that his campaign was “about values that reach across party lines” and about restoring a sense of American possibility.
“I’m running for president because I believe the country is thirsty for leadership.” Later, Kerry grabbed the microphone and urged people to come to a campaign rally he is holding this morning in downtown Pittsburgh — something he almost never does — saying: “We’ll have some fun.”
That caused speculation that he will announce his choice there today to spike higher.