Struggling Kerry tops foes in area fund-raising

He's trailing former Vermont governor Howard B. Dean in Iowa and New Hampshire polls and he fired his campaign manager last week. But Massachusetts Senator John F. Kerry, once considered the likely Democratic nominee for president, can at least console himself with this: He's still leading the field in harvesting campaign funds in Boston's cash-rich western suburbs.

Through the first nine months of the year, Kerry has raised $898,073 in the 37 cities and towns in the Globe West circulation area, according to Federal Election Commission figures. That's more than five times the $165,926 raised by Dean through Sept. 30 and well above the $670,927 raised by President George W. Bush.

Other Democrats who have raised significant sums in the region are Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, with $75,300, US Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, with $62,400, and Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, with $31,000. Retired General Wesley K. Clark, who entered the race in September, netted $15,250.

The federal election data don't tell the whole story, because the commission doesn't track contributions of $200 or less -- gifts that the Dean campaign says have proven critical thus far in his presidential bid.

But Kerry has raised more than three times as much statewide as Dean this year from the biggest donors -- $3.06 million compared with $867,828. Bush, meanwhile, has collected $1.75 million in Massachusetts.

Nationwide, Dean is the front-runner in fund-raising by Democrats, with $25.3 million through the third quarter, compared with $19.9 million for Kerry, who has the second-highest total, according to federal election reports. Bush raised $84.6 million over the same period.

As a four-term senator and former lieutenant governor in Massachusetts, it's no surprise that Kerry is the top fund-raiser in his backyard. Massachusetts will probably account for up to one-fourth of the campaign funds that the senator raises for the Democratic primary race, according to Alan Solomont, a Weston resident heading Kerry's fund-raising efforts in the state.

But Solomont said it was remarkable that Kerry had fared so well in some of the state's wealthiest suburbs. In Weston, for example, which had the highest median income of any community in Massachusetts in the 2000 Census (nearly $154,000) and more registered Republicans than Democrats (1,849 to 1,759), Kerry raised $142,500, more than twice as much as Bush's $65,250.

"Why would a town that's one of the wealthiest in Massachusetts be with a Democrat?" Solomont said. "It's because we've got people in town who really do believe in what a Democratic candidate stands for and what the party stands for, which is giving everybody a shot [at success], as opposed to just the wealthiest 1 percent in America."

But Steven Grossman, the affluent Newton businessman who is cochairman of Dean's national campaign, was less impressed by Kerry's fund-raising totals -- statewide and in western suburbs -- than by what he characterized as a shift in momentum in favor of Dean.

In the third quarter of 2003, Dean outraised Kerry in Massachusetts, $569,307 to $510,262, according to a recent Globe analysis.

"Politics is all about momentum, not what happened last January or February," said Grossman, who led the Democratic National Committee from 1996 to 1999.

"John Kerry had an initial significant burst of activity, and he got what some would call the low-hanging fruit early on in his campaign, particularly the first quarter of the year, before Howard Dean really got rolling."

The fact that Dean surpassed Kerry in Massachusetts in the third quarter was "nothing short of miraculous," said Grossman, adding that only California and New York have generated more cash for the insurgent Vermonter.

Kerry's contributors west of Boston run the gamut but include numerous law or investment firm partners, corporate presidents, and CEOs, such as Ronald L. Sargent of Staples Inc., who gave $4,000. (Because the maximum permitted contribution is $2,000, half of Sargent's contribution went to a special account that Kerry can use only for legal and accounting expenses if he wins the nomination. If not, the FEC says, Kerry would have to give Sargent back the $2,000.)

Sargent, who lives in Hopkinton, also gave $2,000 to Bush. The Staples chief executive was away on business last week and couldn't be reached for comment, according to an assistant. But Larry Noble, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan Washington-based group that tracks money in politics, said it's common for business leaders to contribute to rival candidates. "It's a way of covering their bets, so that they can say they've been a supporter of whoever it is who finally gets into office," he said.

In other cases, Noble said, contributors may like one candidate's politics but have personal ties to another candidate.

Dean's contributors included a number of retirees, physicians, and academics, such as Adele Wolfson, a Wellesley College chemistry professor who gave $250. Wolfson, a Holliston resident, said she had never donated to a presidential candidate but was impressed by Dean's gubernatorial record, including his support of civil unions for gays and lesbians and his efforts to equalize funding of public school districts.

"And I'm opposed to the war [in Iraq] and think it's important to firmly state that belief" through a donation, she said.

Bush's supporters also ran the gamut but featured numerous corporate executives, including Salvatore A. Balsamo, chairman of the board and founder of TAC Worldwide Companies, a Dedham firm that provides temporary technical workers to employers. The Dover resident contributed $2,000, as did his wife, Yvonne Balsamo.

Salvatore Balsamo praised the president's "response to 9/11 and his courage in taking the initiative to get rid of Saddam Hussein."

Although money is crucial to politics, it doesn't guarantee support.

Roger Bergen, the CEO and president of Earthwatch Institute, a Maynard-based nonprofit environmental group, gave the Kerry campaign $1,000 in February. But he wrote an e-mail message to the campaign last week withdrawing his support and saying he no longer wanted to receive the senator's campaign updates online.

Bergen said he was disgusted with Kerry's vague position on the war in Iraq.

"If he can't step up and state his position clearly on the war, then he's not going to be able to step up and clearly state his position on anything that's controversial," said Bergen, who opposes the war and has no idea which candidate he will support now.

Globe correspondent Alison Stierli contributed to this report. Jonathan Saltzman can be reached at jsaltzman@globe.com.