By Helen Dewar
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 11, 1997; Page A04

Assistant Senate Minority Leader Wendell H. Ford (D-Ky.), a crusty congressional insider whose causes have ranged from defending tobacco to promoting easier voter registration rules, announced yesterday that he will not seek a fifth term next year.

Ford, 72, is the second veteran Democratic senator to decide against running again, raising Republicans' hopes of expanding on gains they made in the last two elections. Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio) announced last month that he will retire after four terms.

Republicans, who hold a 55 to 45 edge in the Senate, are poised to make strong bids in Kentucky and Ohio. If four-term Sen. Dale Bumpers (D-Ark.) decides against running again, Republicans would have a good crack at a third seat. But Democrats expect former Indiana governor Evan Bayh (D) to be a strong candidate for the seat of Sen. Dan Coats (Ind.), the only Republican who has so far announced his impending retirement.

Ford's decision also raised the possibility of a scramble among Democrats for their No. 2 leadership post in the Senate. Speculation centered yesterday on Sens. John B. Breaux (La.), Barbara A. Mikulski (Md.) and Harry M. Reid (Nev.).

In an emotional statement to supporters and family members gathered at the state Capitol in Frankfurt, Ky., where Ford served as governor in the early 1970s, he was characteristically blunt as his 32-year political career draws to a close.

Noting that the average cost of a Senate race has risen from less than $450,000 to $4.5 million since he was elected to the Senate in 1974, Ford said "the job of being a U.S. senator today has unfortunately become a job of raising money to be reelected instead of a job [of] doing the people's business."

In a swipe at President Clinton's use of the Lincoln Bedroom to reward big Democratic givers, Ford said he would have had to start raising $100,000 a week if he ran again and "Mrs. Ford won't let me bring anyone home to sleep in our spare bedroom."

While many other senators have alluded to their distaste for fund-raising in their retirement statements, few have done so with more force. "I do not relish, in fact I detest, the idea of having to raise $5 million for a job that pays $133,000 a year," Ford said. "Because of the political money chase, Washington, D.C., is fast becoming the center of our lives, not our people back home.

"Democracy as we know it will be lost if we continue to allow government to become one bought by the highest bidder, for the highest bidder," he added. "Candidates will simply become bit players and pawns in a campaign managed and manipulated by paid consultants and hired guns."

While Ford is one of the Senate's top leaders, serving since 1991 as Democratic whip, he has operated largely out of the limelight, preferring the role of insider and defender of Kentucky interests, including tobacco, bourbon and coal. Most recently, he fought efforts to end the federal tobacco support program and opposed Clinton's plan to help the administration's ambitious health care plan by increasing cigarette taxes.

Ford was also instrumental in passage of "motor-voter" legislation allowing people to register to vote when they apply for drivers' licenses, and he spoke proudly yesterday of his cosponsorship of legislation to assure that women are not released prematurely from hospitals after childbirth or mastectomies.

Ford was chairman of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee for eight years and is its ranking Democrat.

He has been a fierce partisan but also lined up with those who tried to push the Democratic Party toward a more centrist position. Ford said yesterday that he spent "a good part of my Senate career and political life working to nudge, and occasionally shove, our party back toward the center of the political road."

At his news conference, Ford declined to endorse any particular Democrat for next year's election but made clear what he thinks of Rep. Jim Bunning, the likely GOP candidate. "I'm not worried about Jim Bunning," he said. "He's so far right, out at the fringes, that he's be easy to run against."

A spokesman for Rep. Scotty Baesler (D) said Baesler would run for the seat. Other possible Democratic candidates include Lt. Gov. Steve Henry and state Attorney General Ben Chandler, the grandson of former Kentucky governor, senator and baseball commissioner "Happy" Chandler.