Contenders

Barging ahead

Part 5

by Dan Kennedy

The sun is setting now, and the view from Harshbarger's 20th-floor office, overlooking the Charles, is spectacular, the darkening, red-streaked sky forming a backdrop to the Cambridge riverfront and the Longfellow Bridge. Harshbarger, crisp, direct, and focused, comes across as primed for battle. But you can feel the frustration, too, as he tries to break through the mists of Camelot -- mists that, whatever feelings of nostalgia they may evoke among some voters, have or should have little to do with Joe Kennedy.

"I am not now running against Joe Kennedy," he insists. "I am simply telling people that right now I intend to run for governor in 1998. I understand Joe Malone intends to run, Paul Cellucci intends to run. Other people have been mentioned, and there's been reference to Joe Kennedy.

"This has got to be the only state in the country where two and a half years before the election, in the middle of a heavyweight senatorial battle, people are more concerned about who's running for governor and not running for governor, and trying to figure out what the odds are and trying to shape it. What has amazed me about this is, the fact that I might actually contend against Joe Kennedy, should he decide to run, is what seems to attract the attention."

Clearly it's a level of scrutiny to which Harshbarger is unaccustomed. But it's one he's going to have to get used to if he intends to hang in against -- and beat -- an opponent who, in the minds of many, embodies the unfulfilled dreams of a previous generation.

Dan Kennedy can be reached at dkennedy[a]phx.com.