In ’08, Kerry to run for Senate not White House

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) announced yesterday that he will not run for president next year and will instead run for reelection to the Senate.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) announced yesterday that he will not run for president next year and will instead run for reelection to the Senate.

Speaking with emotion on the Senate floor and taping a video that was sent to supporters, Kerry said he would forego a bid for a second straight Democratic presidential nomination and pledged instead to devote the next two years to bringing the Iraq war to an end. He would rather leave the next president with a chance at success than run again himself, he said.

“We came close,” he said on the floor, “certainly close enough to be tempted to try again. There are powerful reasons to want to continue that fight now, but I’ve concluded this isn’t the time for me to mount a presidential campaign.

“It is the time to put my energy to work as part of the majority of the Senate, to do all I can to end this war and to strengthen our security and our ability to fight the real war on terror.”

Kerry, who has eyed the White House since coming up just short in 2004 and has raised money accordingly, had become a long shot for a repeat bid. He languished in early polls despite high name recognition. While Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) have emerged as frontrunners after announcing their intentions recently, a possible Kerry bid has met with skepticism among pundits.

Kerry damaged his cause with comments shortly before the 2006 midterm elections in which he told students at a rally in California that they had better take their education seriously. Otherwise, he said, “you get stuck in Iraq.”

Republicans seized on the comments, which Kerry called a “botched joke.” He said it was meant to be a jab at President Bush rather than at men and women who served in the military in Iraq.

Shortly after the comments, his presidential primary poll numbers dipped below 10 percent and have not recovered. He apologized but was scarcely seen on the campaign trail for the rest of the election.

During his floor speech, Kerry spoke for half an hour about the war in Iraq before closing with his decision not to run.

He pledged to lead a battle to set a deadline in Iraq. He will introduce legislation and has set up a website (www.setadeadline.com) where supporters can sign a petition and “co-sponsor” his legislation.

“I intend to work here to change a policy in Iraq that threatens all that I’ve cared about and fought for since I came home from Vietnam,” he said on the floor, choking up. “The fact is that what happens here in the next two years may irrevocably shape or terribly distort the administration of whichever candidate is next elected president.”

Bush defeated Kerry by 286 electoral votes to 251 in 2004, a victory secured once Ohio, the decisive battleground state, tipped in favor of the incumbent. Kerry garnered about 48 percent of the popular vote.

Kerry won the Iowa Democratic caucus in 2004 with 38 percent of the vote, defeating former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean in a widely unexpected upset. This set the stage for victories in New Hampshire and other early states. Yet in a Strategic Vision poll of Iowa caucus-goers released Tuesday, Kerry was in sixth place with 3 percent.

Edwards, who became his running mate, is now leading the polls in Iowa.

Kerry was hurt mainly because voters did not want to risk voting twice in a row for the same losing candidate, said Jeff Link, an Iowa Democratic consultant aligned with the presidential campaign of former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack.

“Our party has traditionally not been interested in seeing people make a couple runs at the White House,” Link said, adding that former Vice President Al Gore, the 2000 Democratic nominee, would probably have faced a similar situation in 2004.

Kerry’s decision will allow members of the Massachusetts delegation and his 2004 supporters in Iowa, New Hampshire and other early states to align with other candidates.

The Massachusetts delegation, including senior Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), has been putting Kerry under pressure to make his decision. Kennedy said he would support Kerry if he ran.

Kennedy’s office did not return a call about his presidential endorsement by press time. Kerry’s decision came less than 24 hours after Obama sat between Kennedy and Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin (D) at President Bush’s State of the Union address.

“I have the utmost respect for [Kerry] and the difficult decision he has made,” Kennedy said in a statement. “I believe this country would be far better off if he were in the White House today. I know that our country and our state are far better off thanks to his exceptional service in the United States Senate.”

Most of the potential 2008 Democratic candidates have already entered the race or formed exploratory committees: Clinton, Edwards, Obama, Vilsack, Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.), Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio).

Gore, Gen. Wesley Clark, the Rev. Al Sharpton and former Sen. Mike Gravel (D-Alaska) are also potential candidates. Gov. Mark Warner of Virginia, Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) and former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) have decided not to run.

Kerry’s decision to run for reelection to the Senate in 2008 ends a period of positioning among members of Massachusetts’s 10-member, all-Democratic House delegation who had been interested in running for his seat if it became vacant.

With Kennedy just beginning his ninth term and newly elected Gov. Deval Patrick (D) also taking office in January, opportunities for advancement are far off.

Rep. Michael Capuano told The Hill that he recently called Kerry to express interest in running for the seat. Reps. Marty Meehan and Edward Markey have sizeable war chests ($4.9 million and $2.4 million, respectively) and most other members of the delegation have expressed some interest in the Senate in the past.