Talking politics

Election recounts: Michael Whouley's done this before

by Seth Gitell

You've got to go to Doyle's in Jamaica Plain to learn where top Gore political operative Michael Whouley learned his tricks. On Tuesday night, Suffolk County Sheriff Richard Rouse was there for a book party marking the release of Brian Wallace and Bill Crowley's Final Confession: The Unsolved Crimes of Phil Cresta (Northeastern University Press).

"It's déjà vu," Rouse was saying of the messy post-election fight that now appears to be over, thanks to the Supreme Court. Some observers, such as Ryan Lizza of the New Republic, have noted the Boston roots of many of the key Gore aides in this fight. But nobody's noted that Whouley, the man who got Gore to take back his election-night concession to Bush, has been through it all before. And it's possible that his own experience might have given Gore the edge he needed to keep the recount effort alive for 36 days.

Whouley served as Dan Hart's campaign manager when Hart ran against Rouse in the state-representative battle for the Fifth Suffolk District in Dorchester. It was the first time Whouley, then in his early 20s and fresh from working on Joe Timilty's unsuccessful campaign for mayor against Kevin White, had headed a campaign on his own. Election night was good to Rouse, the underdog. He won by 35 votes -- or so he thought.

Whouley and Hart called for a recount, and Hart took the election into Superior Court. Unsatisfied by a ruling in favor of Rouse, Whouley tried to tie the Rouse-Hart race together with other state races and get them all thrown out. "Whouley was the campaign manager. He thought, `Give it a shot,'" says Rouse.

Now Al Gore's given it a shot, but it appears he's out of ammunition.