Vilsack, the Lesser-Known Contender for Kerry Ticket

In Vilsack's account of his time as governor, he has seen reduced class sizes, improved test scores and an expansion of health care coverage to include 94 percent of the state's youngsters. He has also moved aggressively on developing new energy sources and expanding high-tech jobs and cultural activities in small towns. All this, he says, within a state budget that is $300 million smaller than the one he inherited in 1999.

Three Democrats who have worked closely with Vilsack in his Iowa races use similar terms to explain his success. He is, they say, a policy wonk who pores over bills and budgets with the intensity of a trial lawyer preparing a case. But over time, he has become more comfortable -- and adept at -- translating policy into personal terms. "I think," one said, "that as he has come to terms with his own personal history, he has become more open with his emotions. But as the adult child of an alcoholic, he never escapes that sense of personal responsibility -- so he is always determined to be well prepared."

Tom Miller, the veteran Democratic Iowa attorney general, says he thinks that Kerry recognizes in Vilsack the same seriousness and policy focus that he possesses himself and that their common inclinations can overcome the glaring differences in their social backgrounds.

The two came to know each other during the past year, when Kerry made Iowa the testing ground for his presidential hopes. Vilsack announced early on that, as party leader, he would remain neutral in the nomination fight so that all the contenders would have a clear shot at winning the January caucuses.

But his wife, Christie, a formidable campaigner in her own right, endorsed Kerry shortly before the voting -- a major boost to what turned out to be a critical victory. The governor endorsed soon after the caucuses.

Iowa, with seven electoral votes, is a swing state, which George W. Bush lost by about 4,000 votes in 2000. It borders two other swing states -- Wisconsin and Missouri -- and has cultural ties with all of the Midwest.

But the case for Vilsack rests less on his geography than on judgments of his character and the belief of his advocates that he would offer reassurance to voters trying to gauge whether Kerry and the Democrats are plausible custodians of the White House.

One longtime adviser says, "He's not the obvious choice, and there are risks." Even though Vilsack has begun to take more of a national role as head of the Democratic Governors' Association, raising funds and offering campaign help for other candidates, he is relatively untested. "He hasn't had the [Tim] Russert treatment," the adviser notes.

But he would not be unknown for long -- if Kerry were to choose him. "Fundamentally," says his boyhood friend Campbell, "he is a very common-sense, genuine person. He cares about the underdog. Even as a kid, he would fight the bullies in the schoolyard. He's very dogged, and he won't back down. I'd love to see him in there against Dick Cheney."