A PLOT TO LIVEN UP THE RACE

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WHO SAYS THE NONE-OF-THE-ABOVE syndrome is mostly a Republican affliction? Seven prominent politicians, including five Democrats and two Independents, have been secretly plotting an independent run for the White House, some of the participants have told Time. In a prearranged conference call on two Sunday mornings since late October, the schemers have talked in detail about the need for a third voice to challenge the two-party system. Next Sunday, in their most important call yet, they hope to decide whether any of them will seize the moment.

It's not just idle chatter, since the group includes three people who have considered or still are considering mounting such a bid: Democratic Senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey; Lowell Weicker, the former Republican Senator and Independent Governor of Connecticut; and former Massachusetts Senator Paul Tsongas, who ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1992. The other confederates are Dick Lamm, the former Democratic Governor of Colorado; former Minnesota Representative Tim Penny (a budget-cutting Democrat); the current Governor of Maine, Angus King, an Independent; and former Democratic Senator Gary Hart of Colorado. The meetings are so sensitive that Lamm, their initiator, says, "I don't know how you found out, but I can't say a thing."

And no wonder. One participant said the next confab, set for Dec. 3, will go a long way toward deciding which of the Gang of Seven is going to run. In the meantime, they have had a lot to say to each other. Their first conference call, on Oct. 22, lasted nearly two hours and ended with an agreement that members of the group would write papers and circulate the documents among themselves. In their second two-hour conversation last week, members of the group debated their papers and agreed there is a "huge" hunger for a party that is fiscally conservative, socially liberal, pro-environment and in favor of campaign-finance reform.

Now comes the hard part: deciding who, if any of them, will run. Bradley is the likeliest, having recently tested the waters with a campaign-style swing through California. But it created barely a ripple, and lately Bradley has refused to describe himself as a potential candidate. Weicker says he hasn't ruled out a run, but says he likes his new private life as an author and consultant and thinks Bradley would be "perfect." Tsongas has been speaking around the country for his anti-budget deficit Concord Coalition, but says his recurrent bouts with lymphoma have all but disqualified him. Hart has vast experience in presidential campaigns but little of it has been good; this year he practically acknowledged the problem by turning down the chance to run for the Senate. The others are barely known outside their states.