Kerry rules out delaying tactic
OK's Hub nomination; may challenge FEC rule
SEATTLE -- John F. Kerry announced yesterday he would accept his party's presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Boston on July 29, ending a five-day flirtation with the idea of a delay that could have helped him financially but had sparked criticism from Mayor Thomas M. Menino, ridicule from Republicans, and questions among Boston-area residents facing a jam of convention-driven inconveniences.
The Massachusetts senator, who considered the delay to help close a fund-raising gap with President Bush, instead will seek greater grass-roots political support, assistance from state and local parties, and may request a rules change from the Federal Election Commission to help him compete in the final phase of his quest for the White House.
Kerry's decision came partly in response to widening concerns about the postponement scenario from political allies such as Menino, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, and Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe. Former president Bill Clinton spoke with McAuliffe on Sunday about the pros and cons of delaying the nomination but did not take a position during the conversation, party officials said yesterday.
Under the current law, candidates cannot spend privately raised money once they are formally nominated, after which they each get $75 million in public financing. Since Bush will not accept the Republican Party's nomination until Sept. 2, he will have to make his $75 million last only eight weeks until Election Day; Kerry will have to make his last 13 weeks, beginning on July 29.
One idea under consideration within the Kerry campaign is petitioning the FEC for permission to continue raising and spending private funds until Bush receives his federal allotment in early September, according to campaign spokesman Michael Meehan. The FEC has not indicated how it would rule on Kerry's campaign spending options. But Republicans are almost certain to oppose a rules change in the midst of a campaign.
Having the Democratic national and state parties spend on Kerry's behalf could help Kerry close the gap, but the presidential nominee would have no control over their advertising because of rules limiting formal coordination between the parties and the campaign.
Noting that his campaign has already raised over $100 million, including $2.2 million last night, Kerry encouraged Democrats to remain vigilant.
''The decision that I made today raises the bar, because there will be a five-week period when I'm living under different rules than the Republicans are, which is not sensible, but it's the way it is," he said last night at a Seattle fund-raiser, several hours after issuing a statement announcing the decision. ''And we have two things going for us they don't: We have people and ideas, and we have a passion about how we're going to change our country, and I think that will overcome their Pioneers and their Eagles and their money and their special interests, and we're going to prove to them that we are on the march to the beginning of the end of the Bush administration."
Kerry added: ''I made that decision because I believe it's the right thing to do. I believe it's right for us to have a good convention, to nominate and speak to the country, to have a finality of the process of nomination. But I know it puts us at a disadvantage financially, and so I'm relying on you who helped bring us to this point."
The issue of whether Kerry would be nominated at the convention was especially controversial in Boston. Business leaders and politicians -- led by Menino, who has staked his political reputation on a dynamic convention -- were troubled that all the headaches associated with the convention, particularly the nearly 40 miles of highway closings in and around Boston during the July 26-29 event, would be for naught without the pomp of a crowning nomination.
In Washington, Republicans relished the idea of Kerry stewing in all the Democratic criticism and repeatedly hammered away at the nomination issue to reinforce their caricature of Kerry as a flip-flopper -- ''only John Kerry could be for a nominating convention, but be against the nomination," Bush campaign manager Ken Mehlman said in a statement.
By Monday, Menino -- already furious that the Kerry camp did not contact him about the delay option before it became public Friday -- had heard enough concerns that he told Kerry ''to make a decision now and get beyond this," the mayor said yesterday.
Kerry called Menino yesterday evening to say that he would accept the nomination in Boston as scheduled.
''It's great news -- it gets the cloud off the campaign and now we can get into the issues that affect the working people of America," Menino said in the interview. ''This had become an irritation, and he felt, 'Let's stop this, let's get the focus back on the differences between the Republican administration and a Kerry administration.' "
Kennedy, meanwhile, had privately told friends that he opposed delaying the nomination because it might draw less media and public interest to Boston and to the Democratic Convention, which Kennedy assiduously sought for the city.
Unlike Menino, Kennedy did not make his concerns public; aides to the senator said he intended to support Kerry unconditionally in public, given that they are friends and allies and Kennedy serves as co-chair of the presumptive nominee's campaign.
''Senator Kennedy was less than thrilled with the idea, which I think took some time to sink in with the campaign," one Democratic Party operative who is close to Kennedy said, speaking on condition he not be identified.
David Smith, a spokesman for Kennedy, said the senator was unavailable for comment yesterday. He said Kennedy is ''obviously pleased that this has been settled."
For Kerry, the decision about the nomination's timing quickly morphed from a legal issue to a political tinderbox. Democratic Party lawyers had given Kerry a green light to delay the nomination if he wished, reassuring his campaign that the Federal Election Commission would probably not penalize the Democrats if they held a convention without a nominee and continued to raise and spend private funds afterward.
Kerry never chose to explore the idea with the FEC by seeking an advisory opinion, instead hearing from his lawyers that ''the nomination can be delayed -- it's not even a close call that this can be done," one Kerry lawyer involved with the matter said yesterday.
''As a matter of law, it simply wasn't that complicated," the Kerry lawyer said. ''But there were reams of anguished phone calls going back and forth, and a sense emerged that it might not be worth the trouble of changing the convention. The concerns in Boston were significant concerns."
Initially, several senior advisers said they felt that voters would not care if Kerry delayed the nomination; one aide, conveying this view, said that ''only the media and the elites" would pay heed to such a strategic move. Yesterday, however, one senior adviser said that the decision-making had become ''too public" and started reflecting poorly on Kerry.
Johnson reported from Seattle, Healy from Boston. Patrick Healy can be reached at phealy @globe.com. 