Chandler Harrison Stevens hopes to enlist either Kerry or his wife, Teresa, to speak at a convention of Peace Corps volunteers in Chicago next month
One-time foe saw Kerry's presidential potential
Kevin Duchschere, Star Tribune
July 17, 2004 HARRY0717
Many years ago, Chandler Harrison Stevens, now of Austin, Minn., ran against John Kerry in the future senator's first bid for office in Massachusetts. Now, Stevens is going to Boston in hopes of launching Kerry all the way to the White House.
Stevens, 69, is a former engineer and economics professor who leads the Mower County DFL Party when he isn't busy advising clients on management strategies or raising money for civic causes such as the city's old theater.
But in 1970, Harry Stevens was an ex-Massachusetts legislator with an independent streak who vied with Kerry and the Rev. Robert Drinan for the support of antiwar Democrats in opposing a hawkish congressman.
Drinan came out on top and went on to win both the office and later fame during the Watergate hearings.
Stevens came in third just behind Kerry, then 26 and recently honorably discharged following his tour of duty in Vietnam.
In a couple weeks, Stevens, one of 76 Minnesota delegates to the Democratic National Convention, will cast a vote for his old political adversary who he says bore all the marks of presidential timber even then.
"They said that night that he would probably run for president someday, and I thought so too," Stevens said. "It's a lot of bull that they're trying to make him out not to be charismatic. He was the most articulate person I'd ever heard."
Minnesota links
Stevens is one of at least two members of the Minnesota delegation who have links to the Democratic presidential candidate's early years as a Navy skipper, antiwar veteran and young politician.
Lou Ellingson, an Eden Prairie business owner who grew up in western Minnesota, assumed command of a swift boat in South Vietnam in 1969, only a month after Kerry completed his service in the same area at the helm of the same type of vessel.
Kerry's three Purple Hearts, to which he added a Bronze Star and a Silver Star for heroism in the line of fire, entitled him to ship out after four months overseas. Neither Ellingson, who commanded a swift boat for an entire year, nor Kerry lost a crew member.
Ellingson, an alternate delegate who is the state co-chairman of Veterans for Kerry, has met the Democratic nominee several times at reunions of swift boat veterans and in Minnesota.
"He's a congenial sort. He's not the serious type that people make him out to be," Ellingson said.
Stevens , a Pennsylvania native, settled in Bedford, Mass., in the early 1960s to work with a computer firm. After serving on the town board, he was elected to the state House of Representatives as an independent in 1964 and reelected two years later. Backed by an enthusiastic corps of college students, Stevens ran for Congress in 1968 as an independent in a newly drawn district northwest of Boston. He beat a Republican incumbent but lost to conservative Democratic incumbent Philip Philbin.
Two years later, after a stint advising the governor of Puerto Rico, Stevens returned to the district and was urged by antiwar Democrats to challenge Philbin in the fall primary election. According to a 1970 Harvard Crimson story, Stevens was a leading contender for the antiwar endorsement along with Drinan and Kerry.
Drinan, then dean of Boston College Law School, was widely respected in the district. Stevens also was well-known but viewed with some suspicion because he was an independent. Kerry, on the other hand, had no roots in the district and was running mainly because of the chance to unseat a Democratic hawk.
Kerry told the Crimson that he might campaign for Stevens if the latter won the caucus' support. But Stevens and others were eliminated over the course of the balloting, leaving Drinan and Kerry. As Drinan gained momentum, Stevens went to Kerry and proposed they work together to elect Drinan. Kerry agreed and dropped out of the race, earning a standing ovation.
For several years, Kerry and Stevens kept in touch. When Kerry ran again for Congress in 1972 from another district, he consulted Stevens. In the meantime Stevens, who had a Ph.D in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, focused on teaching and building a research and software firm. In 1990, Stevens moved to Austin with his wife, Joann, who had grown up there.
As the presidential race progressed this year, Stevens has become increasingly active on behalf of Kerry, holding a number of house parties and raising $5,000 in hopes of becoming one of the party's top fundraising delegates. He has met Kerry seven times on the campaign trail, starting with an encounter last year in Wisconsin that took the candidate by surprise.
"He said, 'Harry, what are you doing here?' " Stevens said. "We walked and talked, and I gave him a few ideas about the campaign."
Stevens hopes to enlist either Kerry or his wife, Teresa, to speak at a convention of Peace Corps volunteers in Chicago next month.
Beyond that, he would like to play at least a part-time role with the national campaign, perhaps as an organizer of independents and Republicans for Kerry.
In his time in Massachusetts, Stevens rubbed elbows with Michael Dukakis, Paul Tsongas and Ted Kennedy -- all of whom ran for president at some point. But Kerry is the brightest of the lot, he said.
Said Stevens: "He's the best prepared for what we need exactly now. ... It's not a slam dunk. It's going to take a lot of hard work, but he's the man that can do it."
Kevin Duchschere is at
kduchschere@startribune.com
