Kerry becomes a bridge-builder

John F. Kerry’s voice.

“He’ll say, ‘What do you need? What’s going on back there? How can I help you?’ ’’ Barrett said.

“I’ve been all over him like a cheap suit when I think he’s wrong about something or not paying attention,’’ added Barrett, a Democrat who snubbed Kerry to endorse GOP Senate candidate William Weld in 1996. “I would go through the wall now for John Kerry, and I wouldn’t have said that 10 years ago.’’

For decades, Kerry has been dogged by a reputation for a lack of interest in local affairs and aloofness around his Senate colleagues - an attitude that, combined with his patrician habits, often got him labeled as arrogant. Even when he rode the strength of his foreign policy experience and the drama of his personal story to his party’s presidential nomination, a lack of affection for him hampered his candidacy.

But the Kerry who returned to the Senate from the presidential trail was a different man, many colleagues noted, and now, with his presidential ambitions behind him and the senior colleague who long dominated his state sidelined by cancer, Kerry is experiencing what fellow lawmakers describe as a midcareer metamorphosis.

Long regarded as a loner, Kerry now lingers on the Senate floor during votes, talking with colleagues. Once known more for his solo speeches on the floor, Kerry for months has been leading weekly strategy sessions with other senators to find consensus on a climate change bill - a tactic usually identified with Senator Edward M. Kennedy - and following up with friendly meetings with individual senators to address their objections.

Kerry’s Senate schedule is heavily packed with hearings, speeches and international travel associated with his new role as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. But in Massachusetts, Kerry has taken an elevated role, keeping in close contact with local officials and securing federal grants for in-state projects. His staff has been directed to hold “office hours’’ in more than 350 communities, and has completed about 200 of the sessions this year to hear constituent concerns.

And on a personal level, Kerry’s Capitol Hill colleagues say, the five-term senator looks happier than he has in years, bustling around Washington with renewed vigor. Having failed to win the presidency in 2004 - and making a wrenching decision not to seek the job again in 2008 - the 65-year-old Kerry has embraced his role as the Senate’s leading foreign policy voice, while protecting the ailing Kennedy’s vision for healthcare overhaul on the Senate Finance Committee, one of the panels writing the legislation.

“He seems to me to be much more of a team player,’’ said Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat who cochairs the weekly climate change meetings in Kerry’s Capitol office. “John has, in the last couple of years, emerged as one of the great leaders of the Senate.’’

It has usually been Kennedy to whom Bay State officials looked to get help on a local project, or to cobble together coalitions on legislation; Kerry, some officials said, seemed more focused on international affairs and on his own political future. But while Kennedy’s office has not abandoned his constituent work, even during his illness, Kerry has dramatically stepped up his own involvement, his colleagues said.

Representative Michael Capuano, Democrat of Somerville, has been pushing legislation to protect tenants in homes under foreclosure. Kerry, he said, took up the fight on the Senate side and got an amendment passed. “A year ago, I never would have guessed,’’ Capuano said.

“I’m very happy. I’m very challenged,’’ Kerry said in an interview in his office, talking with an ease he rarely displayed during his presidential run. “I don’t think I’ve ever been busier. It’s a very full plate.’’

His manner seemed looser, friendlier, seemingly more alert to the person he’s addressing. At times, he would lapse into the formality that some regarded as pompous but friends always insisted was a combination of shyness and seriousness.

Told that his colleagues have seen an enormous change in him, Kerry shrugged, reluctant to admit that anything has changed and attributing his stepped-up work schedule to his greater seniority in the Senate. “It’s fun. I’m in the middle of some of the great issues of our time,’’ Kerry said, noting his involvement in healthcare, global warming, media and Internet issues - as well as his visits to China, Pakistan, and the Gaza Strip.

“I feel positive about the ability to help shape these events,’’ he said, with an echo of the old formality.

But when the conversation shifted to the hard business of building support for legislation, he was happy to admit that he’s improved over the years. He credits Kennedy, whom Kerry called a “mentor’’ in legislative strategy, for teaching him the importance of intensive, ongoing efforts like his weekly climate-change meetings. “Over the years, I’ve watched Teddy, learned from Teddy. Believe me, that’s where I learned it,’’ Kerry said.

Kennedy’s absence has been both a burden and an opportunity for Kerry, who colleagues say has worked hard to fill in some of the gaps while his friend conserves his strength in Cape Cod, working on healthcare from a distance.

Kerry’s quarter-century in the Senate has been spent under the considerable shadow of Kennedy, who has been in the Senate for 47 years.

While Kerry has had a successful political career, amassing foreign policy influence and winning the 2004 presidential nomination, Kerry could never match Kennedy’s outsized personality, gregarious nature, and sheer legislative power.

Over the years, staffers for both men have suggested that Kennedy did not want Kerry to take a high-profile role in healthcare, education, immigration, or any other of the many domestic policy areas that Kennedy dominated.

But recently, “he knows that with Senator Kennedy unable to play at full strength, if you will, that he’s got to step in and play a disproportionately big role’’ in local and Senate issues, said Steve Grossman, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic party in Massachusetts.

“There’s also a little bit of quiet satisfaction in showing the kind of leadership and in earning, in some cases, grudging respect from colleagues who never saw him as a particularly comfortable creature of the Senate,’’ Grossman said. “He’s now exceeding expectations, in his 25th year.’’

Capuano said Kerry’s “heart and mind have always been in the right place,’’ but said it was tough for Kerry to shine when paired with a legend such as Kennedy. “There’s only room for so many heroes, and Ted, clearly, is one. It’s hard, no matter what you do, to be noticed,’’ Capuano said.

Melrose Mayor Robert J. Dolan, president of the Massachusetts Mayors Association, said Kerry has “taken a real lead’’ on local issues, attending meetings personally and securing grants such as one for an $800,000 public transportation project in Melrose last year.

“Senator Kennedy’s illness is a time of crisis in Massachusetts,’’ Dolan said. “To have that other office rise up is really a testament to [Kerry] and his refocus at a time of crisis.’’

And like Kennedy, Kerry, too, seems to have come to terms with a failed quest for the presidency, fellow lawmakers said. While Kennedy is known for his exhaustive list of legislative accomplishments, many of them came after Kennedy lost the Democratic presidential nomination in 1980 and then decided against a White House run four years afterward.

With President Obama in the White House, Kerry doesn’t talk of the what-ifs, the lingering questions of what he could have done to beat George W. Bush in 2004.

Democrats on Capitol Hill seethed after that loss, and some of their anger appeared - fairly or unfairly - directed at Kerry, who was a daily, walking reminder on Capitol Hill of the Democrats’ loss.

And the White House now? There is no wistfulness in Kerry’s face or voice as he discusses the Oval Office - just pride as he points out a note Obama hand-wrote to Kerry and his wife, Teresa, after the election: “I’m here because of you,’’ the note reads.

“The person I supported and worked for is president,’’ Kerry said. “This is what I came into political life to do. This is the time.’’

Susan Milligan can be reached at milligan@globe.com.