John Forbes Kerry: U.S. Presidential Campaign 2004

John Forbes Kerry has the delegates necessary for the Democratic nomination to run against George W. Bush in U.S. presidential election, 2004. Kerry's U.S. presidential campaign 2004 has not been without stops, starts, and a comeback, as chronicled below.

Also see John Forbes Kerry: U.S. Presidential Campaign 2004 (External Links) for links to related news and journal articles.

Kerry Campaign Web Sites

 * NEW John Kerry Weblog Site: DBunker: "Setting the Record Straight." Web site also includes links to most recent Kerry ads.
 * John Kerry for President Web Site.
 * John Kerry for President: Video Archive and Recent Ads.
 * John Kerry 2004: The Unofficial Kerry for President Blog.
 * Kerry Campaign Organization Wiki.

Campaign Strategists / Staff

 * Mary Beth Cahill, Campaign Manager
 * Bob Shrum, Michael Donilon, and Tad Devine (business partners)
 * John Hurley, Coordinator of Veterans' Affairs
 * Tom Kiley, pollster
 * Mark Mellman, pollster
 * Jeanne Shaheen, Campaign Chairwoman
 * Stephanie Cutter, Campaign Spokeswoman
 * Rand Beers, National Security adviser and Homeland security adviser
 * Roger C. Altman, Campaign adviser

The Hill reported on April 21, 2004, that Senator Kerry has been "snapping up some of Capitol Hill's seasoned veterans and young street fighters to staff his growing campaign organization [and] using the Hill hires to make peace with old rivals and court influential members, while stocking his campaign with aides who have been tested in tough House and Senate races and Capitol floor battles."

Among the "Hill hires" are:


 * Chad Clanton
 * Anthony Coley
 * Anne Davis
 * Tom Eisenhauer
 * Steve Elmendorf, Political Director
 * Mike Gehrke, Research Director
 * Heather Higginbottom
 * Marcus Jadotte, Deputy Campaign Manager
 * Mark Kornblau
 * Katherine Lister
 * Michael Meehan, Senior Adviser
 * Kim Molstre
 * Kathy Roeder
 * Phil Singer
 * Ali Wade
 * David Wade, Deputy Communications Director/Traveling Press Secretary
 * Joseph Winner

Also see Jim VandeHei, "Old-School Team To Sell Kerry as Modern Centrist," Washington Post, April 21, 2004.

Other reported campaign staff and advisers included:
 * Jill Alper, Adviser
 * Sarah Bianchi, Policy Director
 * Brigadier Gen. Stephen A. Cheney, Adviser and member of "Generals for Kerry"
 * Andrei Cherny, Director of Speechwriting
 * Luis Miranda, Deputy Press Secretary and Director of Internet Operations
 * Morra Aarons, Director of Online Communications (moved to DNC)
 * Sanford Dickert, Chief Technology Officer
 * Max Cleland, Adviser
 * Jack Corrigan, Adviser
 * Norm Dicks, Adviser
 * Robert Farmer, Treasurer
 * Jim Johnson, Campaign Manager (primaries)
 * Lieutenant General Claudia Kennedy, Adviser and member of "Women's Voices from the Trail"
 * Edward Kennedy, Adviser
 * Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Adviser
 * Cameron Kerry, Fundraiser (and Kerry's brother)
 * Peter Maroney, Finance Director
 * Katie McCormick
 * Minyon Moore, Adviser
 * David Morehouse, Communications Director
 * Robert Reich, Adviser
 * Ron Roseblith, Adviser
 * Robert Rubin, Adviser
 * Eliot Spitzer, Adviser
 * Louis Susman, Finance Chair
 * David Thorne, Internet adviser
 * Setti Warren, Trip Director
 * Michael J. Whouley, Field Organizer

In early September 2004, the Washington Post reported that, while "bolstering his inner circle of advisers with veterans from previous Democratic campaigns," Senator Kerry's most recent campaign staff hires - Joel P. Johnson, Joe Lockhart, Howard Wolfson and Michael J. Whouley - added "lobbyists with close ties to a wide array of businesses, including drug companies and Microsoft." All four men "have taken leaves of absence [from their lobbying firms] to join the campaign," reported the Post. "The hires are typical of the revolving door that exists between those who run campaigns and those who lobby," remarked American University political science professor James A. Thurber. Indeed the Bush campaign includes several lobbyists among its staff and advisers, including Ralph Reed and Vin Weber. But, "if Kerry is trying to show he's for lobbying reform and is independent of special interests, this set of personnel changes is not a good thing," said Thurber.

Campaign Consultants
According to the October/ November 2004 issue of Campaigns & Elections, the Kerry campaign consultants included:
 * Riverfront Media, LLC
 * Malchow, Schlackman, Hoppey & Cooper
 * O'Brien, McConnell & Pearson: fund-raising
 * Addressing Services Co.: direct mail
 * Names in the News: direct mail
 * The Dewey Hub, LLC: voter contact, fund-raising
 * The Strategy Group: direct mail
 * Shrum Devine Donilon: media
 * Avenging Angels, Inc.: fund-raising
 * Strategic Marketing & Mailing: direct mail
 * The Spoken Hub, LLC: phone banking
 * A. Gutierrez & Associates: media
 * Integral Resources, Inc.: fund-raising, telemarketing
 * The Tyson Organization: phone banking
 * The Mellman Group: research
 * Share Group, Inc.: fund-raising
 * Citizen Soldier Fund: voter contact
 * L&E Meridian: direct mail
 * Kiley & Company: research, polling
 * Facter Direct Ltd.: fund-raising
 * AMS Communications: direct mail
 * Merkle Response: fund-raising
 * Common Sense Consulting: accounting
 * Direct Mail Processers: fund-raising
 * The Feldman Group, Inc.: research
 * GMMB: media
 * Typed Letters Corporation: direct mail
 * Group Incorporated: media
 * Perkins Coie, Seattle: legal
 * L&G Systems: direct mail
 * Integram: direct mail
 * NCS Direct, Inc.: direct mail
 * Dewey Square Group: general
 * Telefun, Inc.: fund-raising
 * The Martilla Communications Group: communications services
 * Meyer Associates: telemarketing
 * Andrei Cherry: general
 * Target America: fund-raising
 * ABIS: direct mail
 * John R. Norris: general
 * Kenneth W. Robinson: general
 * Harrison & Goldberg, Inc.: research
 * Sarah Bianci: research
 * Direct Advantage Marketing: direct mail
 * Massachusetts Strategy Group: fund-raising
 * Strategic Telemetry, Inc.: polling
 * Overlook Strategies, Inc.: issues consulting
 * Jack Corrigan: general
 * Smart Campaigns: research
 * Triumph Communications: general
 * Xpedite Systems, Inc.: voter contact
 * Michael J. Whouley: general
 * The Oblander Group, GA: fund-raising
 * Practical Political Services: voter contact

Contacts with Lobbyists

 * Jim VandeHei and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum, "Kerry Issues List Detailing Contacts With Lobbyists," Washington Post, April 22, 2004: "John F. Kerry yesterday disclosed nearly 200 meetings he has held with lobbyists since 1989, including dozens having business before his Senate committees, as the presumptive Democratic nominee sought to draw a sharp contrast with what he describes as the Bush administration's more secretive and expansive dealings with corporate lobbyists. ... No member of Congress-turned-presidential candidate has ever listed in such detail contacts with lobbyists, who are paid to influence policy decisions. ... In an 11-page document provided to The Washington Post before wider release today, the senator from Massachusetts detailed the participants and dates of private meetings in his Senate office with lobbyists representing clients including labor unions, trial lawyers, environmental groups, and such major corporations as Microsoft and IBM."

Military Records

 * John Forbes Kerry's military service


 * John Kerry's military records online at johnkerry.com.


 * Lois Romano, "Kerry Posts Naval Record Online. Medical Data Incomplete; Most Information Had Been Released," Washington Post, April 22, 2004: "John F. Kerry's presidential campaign Wednesday posted on its Web site 145 pages of his military record, which offered glowing evaluations of his combat service in Vietnam, but little new information about the Massachusetts senator's four-year tour in the Navy. ... Kerry spokesman Michael Meehan said the campaign has released virtually every document it received from the Navy, with the exception of Kerry's complete medical record. The campaign released only those records of combat injuries and medical treatment that support Kerry's Purple Heart citations. ... Meehan said the campaign was in the process of pulling together Kerry's entire military medical record, but he would not commit to releasing it. 'I think it's only fair for Senator Kerry to be able to review 30-year-old medical records before he decides what to do with them,' Meehan said. 'It is our intention to provide information from his medical records. Right now, we don't have it all.' ... Meehan also said the campaign would post an additional 66 pages it received from the Navy archives last year of combat reports that Kerry dispatched when he was commander of a swift boat in Vietnam in 1968. ... Kerry and his staff have said this week that there is likely nothing new in the documents, which Kerry requested from the Navy last month. Much of the record had been released over the past two decades upon request to various news organizations, including The Washington Post."

Endorsements
Also see John Kerry for President: Endorsements and Independents for Kerry: Endorsements List.

Including:


 * AFL-CIO
 * Wesley Kanne Clark
 * Max Cleland
 * Howard Dean
 * Dianne Feinstein
 * Dick Gephardt
 * John Glenn
 * Edward M. Kennedy
 * Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Environmental Advocate
 * League of Conservation Voters
 * George Mitchell
 * Al Sharpton
 * Joseph C. Wilson IV

Endorsements .. of sorts

 * March 23, 2004: "Kerry Gets Boost From Surprising Sources. Ex-Bush Aide Criticizes President, and GOP Lawmakers Come to Senator's Defense" by Jim VandeHei, Washington Post.

Fundraising & Campaign Finance

 * Campaign Money Watch
 * Campaign Money Watch Blog
 * Fund Race
 * Government Information Awareness: John Forbes Kerry. Campaign contributions, industry support, and information links.
 * Political Money Line
 * The Buying of the President 2004: John Forbes Kerry, Center for Public Integrity web site.
 * November 15, 2003: "Kerry, Following Dean, Rejects Public Financing for Primaries" by Diane Cardwell and Benjamin Weiser, New York Times: "The decision is potentially riskier for Mr. Kerry than for Dr. Dean, who leads the Democratic field in fund-raising. ... Kerry ... would dip into his personal assets and those held jointly with his wealthy wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, to finance his campaign as needed but would not give details. ... An aide said Mr. Kerry would take out a loan against his assets to help finance the campaign."
 * March 19, 2004: "Kerry Capitalizing on Party Resources to Fill Coffers" by Jim VandeHei and Thomas B. Edsall, Washington Post: "Although Bush is virtually certain to raise more money than Kerry -- and perhaps double -- Democrats are no longer concerned that the president will spend the Democratic nominee into the ground even before most voters tune into the race months from now. Some Republicans privately express concern that Bush's money advantage will not prove invincible, as they had once believed."

Also see U.S. presidential election, 2004: Democrat Campaign Ads for information regarding internet activism to raise funds for Kerry's ad campaign.

Vision of Iraq

 * Jodi Wilgoren, "Kerry Challenges Bush to Internationalize Iraqi Operation," New York Times, April 30, 2004:


 * "One year after President Bush celebrated success in Iraq by landing on an aircraft carrier decorated with a 'Mission Accomplished' banner, Senator John Kerry today challenged him to immediately internationalize the operation, urging the appointment of a high commissioner to oversee Iraq's reconstruction and political transformation.


 * "The high commissioner, modeled on a similar position deployed in Bosnia, would be authorized by the United Nations Security Council to organize elections, draft a constitution and work with both Iraq's interim government and the American ambassador. Mr. Kerry also called on NATO to make Iraq's security one of its global missions before the June 30 deadline for the handover of power, and for a 'massive training effort' to build a native security force there." (See Iraqi sovereignty: June 30, 2004.)


 * "Iraq has been one of Mr. Kerry's stiffest challenges throughout the campaign."


 * "Another Vision of Iraq", New York Times Op-Ed, May 6, 2004:


 * "For months, Mr. Kerry has advocated broader international oversight of Iraq's prospective interim government, a formula that might open the door to additional peacekeeping contributions and generate some real support for nation building there. Now he has begun to elaborate on how that oversight should be structured, drawing sensible lessons from successes and failures of the recent past.


 * "Mr. Kerry recognizes that the United Nations cannot offer any magic bullet solutions for Iraq, and that working with Secretary General Kofi Annan and his special representative, Lakhdar Brahimi, cannot be a substitute for broad cooperation with all the major powers represented in the Security Council. To this end, while endorsing Mr. Brahimi's efforts to put together a transitional Iraqi government, Mr. Kerry also proposes designating an international high commissioner for Iraq whose office would be outside the barely functional, patronage-driven U.N. personnel system. That would permit the recruitment of a capable staff and create some safeguards against the kind of wholesale corruption that is alleged to have vitiated the U.N.'s Oil-for-Food Program in Iraq.


 * "This feature of the Kerry proposal draws on the pattern of international oversight in Bosnia. While far from perfect, Bosnia's transition has worked out a lot better than Iraq's and elicited far wider international cooperation. Mr. Kerry also invokes the Bosnia example when he suggests that the NATO alliance be directly involved in Iraqi peacekeeping operations. That could help make NATO more relevant to the post-Cold War world and would ease the burden on America's badly strained military. An American commander would still be in overall charge of security.


 * "Mr. Kerry's ideas would have been difficult to put into effect a year ago. They would be extremely hard to carry out now, and impossible by next January, should he defeat Mr. Bush. But they at least reflect a realistic view of what the United Nations -- and the United States -- can and cannot do. The Bush administration, meanwhile, clings to the unworkable notion of an American-controlled transition, an idea that grows ever more out of touch with reality as the news of the revolting abuses at Abu Ghraib prison overwhelms any remaining Iraqi faith in Washington's good intentions."


 * Lois Romano, "Kerry Decries Prison Abuse. Bush Response to Situation 'Slow and Inappropriate,' Democrat Says," Washington Post, May 5, 2004.

Planning for an "October Surprise"

 * Jonathan E. Kaplan reports in the May 5, 2004, The Hill that "Kerry gathers doomsday team" to prepare "for a so-called 'October surprise,' including Osama bin Laden's capture and a terrorist attack in the United States."


 * Rand Beers, one of "a member of a loose group" of Kerry advisers, says "'There is discussion of what are the unexpected, unanticipated [events] ... It would be a surprise if we were not going to talk about it.'"


 * Kaplan says that "Campaign officials dislike discussing the issue at all for fear that it makes the campaign look intent on taking political advantage of what might be a catastrophic event, such as a terror attack. Aides also want to avoid signaling to the opposing camp what they are thinking or doing on strategic issues. ... But, they say, they have to prepare for the unexpected."

Links Regarding U.S. presidential election, 2004

 * Democratic National Committee
 * Dick Cheney
 * George W. Bush
 * George W. Bush: U.S. Presidential Campaign 2004
 * U.S. presidential election, 2004: Active Advocacy Groups
 * U.S. presidential election, 2004: Campaign Ad Issues
 * U.S. presidential election, 2004: Campaign Ads
 * U.S. presidential election, 2004: Campaign Issues
 * U.S. presidential election, 2004: Campaign Quotes
 * U.S. presidential election, 2004: Democrat Campaign Ads
 * U.S. presidential election, 2004: The Culture War
 * U.S. presidential election, 2004: Wedge Issues

Other SourceWatch Resources

 * Bush administration
 * Bush administration smear campaigns: John Forbes Kerry
 * coalition of the willing: beginning of the end
 * Operation Enduring Freedom
 * Operation Iraqi Freedom
 * Operation Iraqi Freedom: Beginnings of a Quagmire
 * political spying
 * Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal
 * Swift Boat Veterans for Truth
 * Harbour Group
 * Asbestos Study Group
 * Dewey Square Group
 * Glover Park Group