Kerry is 'bringing it on'
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By Patrick Healy
Boston Globe Staff
1/9/2004
PERRY, Iowa -- From Elks clubs to cramped diners across Iowa, John F. Kerry seems a changed man these days. As he promises to go head to head with President Bush on a signature Republican issue, national security, Kerry has been underscoring his resolve by challenging Bush to "bring it on," and audiences have begun saying the words with him.
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This spontaneous response is one of several signs, members of his campaign staff say, that the senator is gaining momentum in Iowa at the right moment -- 10 days before this state's presidential nominating caucuses, a period when a healthy minority of undecided voters settle on a candidate.
Kerry's crowds have grown larger since Christmas, from a typical 125 or so in a good-sized city to more than 200 at most events today. More undecided voters are coming out to take a look at him, according to campaign staff. About 200 people filled a church hall in Ames on Tuesday morning, when it was so cold that some cars wouldn't start.
Kerry's performance has sharpened, too, his staff says: less windy in his answers to voters, and more relaxed, despite the high stakes in a state where Kerry is hoping to exceed expectations of a third-place finish.
Three times recently, he has started late-night snowball fights and football tosses with aides. He strums tunes on his guitar at his daughter's request.
And he delights in recent evidence that Howard Dean, with his established lead in the polls, is eyeing him warily. A new Dean mailing to Iowa voters attacked Kerry directly, noting an opinion poll last year that indicated Kerry trailing in his home state of Massachusetts to Dean.
"Footsteps," Kerry said recently, suggesting that Dean had been jarred into attack mode because of momentum by Kerry.
Kerry's campaign, meanwhile, accused Dean's camp yesterday of sending spies to inquire about Kerry strategy at campaign offices. Late last night, Dean's Iowa campaign manager, Jeani Murray, announced she had fired two workers who had recently joined the campaign but had "misrepresented themselves and the campaign."
Whether Kerry has begun to surge in Iowa, or whether Iowa's many undecided voters are shopping around more, is a popular parlor game for political observers anticipating the first-in-the-nation caucuses Jan. 19. What's certain is that new attention is falling on Kerry.
"Part of Kerry's recent success is Iowans looking for an alternative to Dean, because they worry, as the caucuses arrive, that he may be unelectable," said Fred Antczak, professor of rhetoric and a political observer at the University of Iowa. "Kerry seems to have the gravitas that would make him a good alternative."
Kerry is returning to the state tomorrow with one of his most popular political allies, Senator Edward M. Kennedy. Kerry is scheduled to announce "a major endorsement" from "a prominent state leader" in Davenport today, according to his campaign. His aides said it would not be the state's senior senator, Tom Harkin. Kerry has been courting Representative Leonard Boswell, a fellow veteran who has appeared with Kerry on the campaign trail since fall, and Attorney General Tom Miller, who spent part of Sunday evening with Kerry.
Dean's camp has been eager to project anxiety about Kerry. Dean's Iowa advisers reveal that in their own polls Kerry has climbed into a second-place tie with Gephardt, with Dean in the lead.
A new Iowa poll released yesterday indicated Dean ahead, with 29 percent of the vote; Gephardt in second, at 22 percent; and Kerry, 21 percent. The margin of error was 4 percentage points.
Gephardt's polls indicate him leading, with Dean in second place, a Gephardt campaign official said. Still, a senior Dean adviser contended, "Kerry has turned Iowa into a real dogfight."
Dean aides have a motive to pump up Kerry, political observers note. Together, they can knock out Gephardt in the Iowa caucuses and strengthen Kerry's fight against retired Army General Wesley K. Clark in New Hampshire. Kerry plans to spend most of the next 10 days in Iowa courting undecided voters as well as about 93,000 Democrats and independents who, like himself, are veterans. |
