Lawyer bids to unseat Kerry in '08

For the past 25 years, he has argued cases before judges and juries. Now a Gloucester lawyer is trying to tap those same advocacy skills in an ambitious political quest.

Edward J. O'Reilly has launched a challenge to Senator John F. Kerry in the Democratic primary next year.

O'Reilly, who previously served single terms on the City Council and on the School Committee in Gloucester, has been meeting with Democratic audiences in the state since beginning to campaign in earnest a month ago.

"I absolutely love the campaign trail. I love meeting people. I love the whole interaction with people," said O'Reilly, 54. "It's a learning process. I'm used to public speaking in court, but it's a whole different ballgame campaigning."

Though he faces tall odds as a relative unknown challenging a fourth-term Senate veteran and former presidential nominee, O'Reilly says he is undaunted.

"The people that don't know me may have some doubts," he said of his chances. "But what's really encouraging is that the people that know me have no doubt in their minds I can do it."

State Representative Michael A. Costello, a Newburyport Democrat and a friend of O'Reilly, said he faces a formidable task opposing a sitting senator, likening it to "moving Mount Everest." But Costello, who is backing his friend in the race, said, "Eddy is the one guy that, if a mountain can be moved, I'd put money on" to do it. "He'll make it very interesting."

"I think 'undaunted' is a great word to describe Eddie. He's fearless and he's very skilled," said Costello, who got to know O'Reilly when he was an assistant district attorney. "He's really established himself as one of the premier trial attorneys in Eastern Massachusetts."

"He's a very spirited, committed person," Essex District Attorney Jonathan W. Blodgett said of O'Reilly, who served as a campaign coordinator for Blodgett before the Peabody Democrat first won his seat in 2002. "He cares deeply about the issues he talks about, and he is a hard worker."

A past supporter of Kerry's, O'Reilly was spurred to enter the race by continuing disappointment with the senator's 2002 vote to authorize military action in Iraq, a vote he said has led him to question Kerry's conviction and leadership.

"The John Kerry that I thought I knew was not the John Kerry that really existed at that point," O'Reilly said of the 2002 vote. "He weighed that vote based on his own personal political ambition, and that to me is unconscionable. When he did that, it really changed my view of John Kerry."

Originally siding with Howard Dean in the 2004 presidential race, O'Reilly later backed Kerry as the Democratic nominee but not with enthusiasm. "I saw how he did not stand on any convictions, or the beliefs of the Democratic Party. . . . I thought, 'I know I could do a better job than he is doing.' We need someone who is not afraid to stand up and say what he believes in."

Despite his relative lack of governmental experience, O'Reilly said he believes voters will be open to supporting him because as a trial lawyer, he has shown the ability to stand up for causes, even unpopular ones.

Vincent Morris, a spokesman for the Kerry campaign, responded in an e-mail, "Senator Kerry is working every day to end the war in Iraq. More than a year ago he proposed a deadline to bring our troops home -- a position that most Democrats in Congress have now supported." The senator is running for reelection, Morris said, "so he can continue working on behalf of the state and also to end the war in Iraq, to combat global climate change, to increase pay for our troops and improve benefits for our veterans."

Michael Schulze, Peabody's Democratic City Committee chairman and longtime Kerry supporter who plans to back him next year, defended the senator's 2002 vote.

"He went with all the best evidence he had and made a difficult decision," Schulze said. "Kerry, himself, has said if he had the information that he later had then he probably wouldn't have [voted] as he did, as have others."

Schulze said Kerry continues to be an able senator, citing his efforts to bring an end to the Iraq war and his work on behalf of the state, including Essex County.

"I have no doubt he will be reelected," he said.

O'Reilly, who grew up in Watertown, is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and New England School of Law. The son of the late Watertown fire chief Robert C. O'Reilly, he worked as a firefighter in Amherst, Watertown, and Gloucester before becoming a lawyer.

He has also worked as a state correctional officer and counselor, and as a lobsterman.

His early career as a lawyer coincided with a down time in his personal life. O'Reilly said he developed a drinking problem that was "definitely interfering with my daily life."

O'Reilly successfully battled the problem -- "I haven't had a drink in over 18 years," he said -- and has found a way to make positive use of the experience. In his law practice, he provides informal counseling to clients with substance abuse issues, in addition to representing them in court.

He said that effort has changed his outlook as a lawyer.

"When I first started as a lawyer, I was more ego driven. I've gotten a lot more satisfaction over the last 10 to 15 years out of helping people. I look at winning and losing a different way," he said.

O'Reilly is focused on winning his Senate race and finds much to encourage him on the campaign trail.

"I get all kinds of reactions," he said. "But one of them quite often is 'thank you for running.' People, especially Democratic voters, want a choice."

NorthTalk
Do you think any fellow Democrat can defeat Senator John F. Kerry, a longtime incumbent? Log on to boston.com/northtalk, e-mail globenorth@globe.com, or write to Globe North, Suite 200, 1 Corporate Place, 55 Ferncroft Road, Danvers, MA 01923.