Kerry

was an evening bereft of joy. Early returns showed its candidate running behind in areas where he had assumed widespread support, and its enthusiasm, dampened by the inauspiciousness of the early returns, ebbed steadily as the evening wore on. Kerry remained in seclusion most of the night and his absence heightened the anxieties of his supporters. He did not appear until 1:30 a.m. and then only to give a last-gasp, don't-give-up-the-ship statement. Kerry was reserved and grave in his remarks. "It's a very, very close election, he said. There was no sign of encouragement in his voice and his graveness only foreshadowed the concession that he was to make an hour later.

Kerry blamed his loss on "the politics of fear" that had taken hold of the District, referring to Durkin's bombastic attacks on Kerry's "radicalism" and to the Independent's political maneuvering and late withdrawal. But the failure of whiz-kid Kerry to grab the golden ring from the merry-go-round can be traced more directly to his own tactics and attitudes. Kerry brought overkill into the Fifth District Congressional campaign. He sought to out-spend, out-charm, and outmaneuver the opposition. He wrapped himself in a new and flashy public relations package--the best money could buy--in an attempt to capitalize on his name and reputation. The voters, reaching into a tradition of local interest and loyalty and verring away from the new and alarming, chose to ignore the pretty and slick package. Instead they turned to a man of long-standing local ties who had spent a lifetime working within and for the area and who reflected more accurately their own basic conservatism.