Word: kerrey
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...Kerrey's first goals was to transform the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee from a political backwater to a one-stop shop for Democratic candidates. To that end, he reversed the committee's ban on soft money, the unrestricted kinds of contributions. Hell, if you're going to fight, you need all the weapons at your disposal. When he took over, there was only one person regularly doing press relations; now there are six. He hired a full-time cartoonist who creates at least one political gibe a day, faxed to thousands of newspapers around the country. And Kerrey insisted...
...tenure has been controversial among some Democrats for what might be called Kerrey's Merry Millionaires. His enthusiastic championing of wealthy businessmen such as Walter Minnick in Idaho, Tom Bruggere in Oregon, and former Glaxo executive Charlie Sanders in North Carolina (who last month lost the Dem-ocratic primary to Gantt) has caused some Democrats to wonder whether it was wise to link the erstwhile party of the working- man with those perceived as high rollers. Kerrey bristles at this charge. "Who was our most hallowed Democratic politician of this century? Frank-lin Del-a-no Roos-e-velt," Kerrey...
...Kerrey recruited his candidates like a zealous corporate headhunter eager for his 10% commission. In Idaho he tried to persuade Minnick, a former CEO of the construction-products firm TJ International, to challenge first-term Republican Larry Craig. For several months, he called every week, and each time Minnick said no, he was too old, didn't like Washington and couldn't win anyway. Kerrey authorized a $25,000 poll and found out that while Minnick's popularity was just 11%, only one- third of Idaho voters recognized Craig's name, and many were more moderate than...
Still, fund raising is Kerrey's primary mission, and for an ethereal guy, he's pretty darn good at it. He has raised $16 million, up 12% from the same cycle in 1994 (though still far short, as always, of what the Republicans have raked in, about $30 million so far). Put the phone to your ear, and listen to an excerpt of Bob Kerrey dialing for dollars. Kerrey (stern): "Yes, we'll elect a few stinkers, I suppose, but I believe that we'll bring to Washington some people who will use your hard-earned money to help endow...
...person, Kerrey is the antithesis of a party hack. With his macrocephalic head and mesmeric blue eyes, he comes across as a winsome extraterrestrial. Even more exotic among politicians, he actually seems to be thinking while he talks, and given the opportunity, he'll talk about anything but politics. While taking a stroll along Michigan Avenue in Chicago, killing time before a fund raiser for Illinois senatorial candidate Dick Durbin, Kerrey provides a magical mystery tour of his mind: he mentions how much he relishes mathematical constants ("I have a love affair with figures that stay constant, like gravity...