In nonchalant Nantucket, Kerry visit evokes nary a stirNANTUCKET -- The city of Boston may be in the throes of preconvention madness, but here on Nantucket -- where presumptive Democratic nominee John F. Kerry has been out and about on vacation the last four days -- the notion that this would become his "summer White House" has provoked surprisingly minor stirrings.
If interviews on Main Street, along the bike paths, and at nightspots are any indication, virtually everyone knows that Kerry is here, and virtually everyone professes not to care. They recall with pride how Frank Sinatra used to walk the cobblestone streets unimpeded, how Jackie Kennedy shopped at her leisure, how Carly Simon used to play on street corners decades ago. One downtown shopkeeper, Melissa Wood, sounded more awestruck recalling a visit a couple of summers ago by actors Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston, than by the idea of a President Kerry zipping around here next summer. "The flavor of the island is to let everybody be who they are, and I think that will continue if Kerry comes here for a day or a week or if he's president or not," said Barbara Keating of Leominister, who voted for President Bush in 2000 but plans to support Kerry this year, and has been summering on the island for 29 years. "There may be some horn-tooting in the traffic, but honestly, I don't even know what the Secret Service cars look like." Sure, there have been the occasional traffic jams plugging Center Street as Kerry has gone to dinner at Black-Eyed Susan's bistro. The teenage skateboarders up in the Brant Point neighborhood, home to Teresa Heinz Kerry's $9 million oceanfront compound, are now under the watchful eye of the Secret Service. Sailors kept a wide berth from the Coast Guard and Secret Service boats down harbor yesterday as Kerry kite-surfed for 90 minutes. And the sidewalks were clogged after the 7 p.m. Sunday Spanish Mass at St. Mary's, Our Lady of the Isle, as Kerry and his wife stepped out and greeted a crowd of 150 or so. "Hola! Que tal?" Kerry said to some children after Mass, asking how they were. He was also given three dogs to stroke -- Maggie, a Pomeranian that seemed to miss her blonde master; an unnamed mini Doberman retriever clad in a little shirt that read "Sunday"; and Pico, a 13-week-old Chihuahua that hugged Kerry excitedly. By all accounts, Kerry loves Nantucket. And Democrats and independents appear happy to have him here, with some islanders immodestly trumpeting their partisan fervor: Next-door neighbors of the Heinz Kerrys have draped an enormous "Kerry Edwards" banner on their home. Other islanders struck a nonchalant pose, and said they weren't concerned that Nantucket would fall into the traffic-clogged chaos of Martha's Vineyard during President Clinton's summer vacations there. "The Vineyard has six towns or so on one island -- we just have the little downtown with Main Street, and Kerry doesn't come here much," said a gray-haired man in a paint-stained T-shirt and shorts, who identified himself only as "K-Man," sitting outside the Hub newspaper store on Monday. "I'd say hi if he walked by. I'm just sitting here girl-watching. As long as he doesn't get in my way, I'm fine." The island appears likely to go to Kerry Nov. 2, given his ties as a homeowner here and Massachusetts' native son, as well as political trends. From 1960 to 1984, Nantucket voted Republican in each presidential election except 1964, according to an article in the July 14 Nantucket Independent. In 1988, locals lined up behind Governor Michael S. Dukakis; Bill Clinton and Al Gore bested their opponents by more than 20 percentage points in 1992, 1996, and 2000. About 54 percent of voters registered on the island are unaffiliated, 26 percent are Democrats, and 20 percent are Republicans, according to state records. The Independent reported that of the $100,500 given in political contributions in 2003-04, $65,900 went to Democrats and $34,600 went to the GOP. Tom Foley of Greenwich, Conn., who runs an investment concern and summers here, was in his vintage two-seat Folland Gnat plane Saturday afternoon just behind Kerry's 757 jet as it was coming in for a landing at Nantucket Memorial Airport. On the ground, Kerry alighted and strode over to Foley, and the two talked pilot-to-pilot for a bit, with Kerry sharing some tales about his own aerobatics of the past. Afterward Foley said he'd met the senator once or twice before and laughed when asked who he would vote for this November (the implication did not bode well for island fellowship).
Patrick Healy can be reached at phealy@globe.com. © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
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