Former Senator Tsongas Says He Will Not Run for Governor

BOSTON--Former U.S. Sen. Paul E. Tsongas formally reminded the state yesterday that he is not a candidate for governor and said he could foresee no circumstances that would cause him to change his mind.

"For me to run for governor would be to deny my deepest responsibilities to myself and to those I love," said Tsongas, a Democrat. "A quest for public office based on this denial would have not worked. It would have eventually collapsed of its own contradiction."

Tsongas, 48, decided not to run for a second U.S. Senate term in 1984 when he was diagnosed as having a mild form of lymphoma, a type of cancer.

Tsongas said that under his original timetable, he had planned to undergo medical tests in January. If those test results been good, he would then have confronted the personal issues of whether to run for governor.

"The rush of events has rendered that timetable inappropriate," Tsongas said. "Three months of irresolution would have led to charges of manipulation if I had decided to run and feelings of abandonment if I had decided not to."

At a news conference announcing his decision, Tsongas described the state as "in a free-fall" and said the cure to its problems depend on actions by political leaders, business leaders and the media.

"There are no miracle-cure candidates," Tsongas said. "The problems we face are not resolvable by any governor if there is no leadership in other critical sectors, both public and private."

Tsongas said the Legislature must have leadership "that declares an end to special interest, spoil-system government." He cited as an example the Legislature's vote last week against forcing the beer and soda pop bottling industry to turn over to the state $46 million in beverage container deposits that consumers did not redeem.

Key business groups, Tsongas said, must develop "a reasonable social contract with government."

Tsongas said the media, while continuing aggressive investigative reporting, must stop "attack-only journalism" that he said "immobilizes society in deadening cynicism."

"Such a society will surely be able to identify hacks, real or imagined, but it will never be able to recognize its heroes."

Tsongas said he was willing to discuss ideas with both Democratic and Republican candidates for governor and planned to continue in his unpaid job as chair of the Board of Regents of Higher Education.

Tsongas declined to endorse any candidates for governor and noted they all oppose a plan he is pushing to raise the state's 5 percent sales tax by a penny on the dollar, with the additional revenue dedicated to education.

In the past, Tsongas had encouraged U.S. Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II (D-Mass) to enter the race and said he had talked to Kennedy yesterday morning but did not know his plans.