Inside The Inner Circles

If the hallmark of George W. Bush's management style is the faith he puts in a tight, unchanging inner circle, a look at those who surround John Kerry suggests that his approach is almost the opposite. Kerry's team is wider in reach but narrower in influence than Bush's, more a kaleidoscope than a circle. Depending on the question at hand, Kerry may draw upon old friends, new allies or even former adversaries. Yet none of them ever enjoy more than a limited hold on him. "He makes a cut on what people bring to a discussion," says Kerry campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill, a relatively new star in the candidate's universe. "A lot of people talk to him on a lot of subjects, but on any given subject, there's a very small number of people he trusts and he listens to."

So it's hard to imagine that there would be any guru-like figure--a Karl Rove or a Karen Hughes--in a Kerry White House. Kerry has said John Edwards' influence as Vice President would be far smaller than Dick Cheney's, which the Democratic challenger calls "excessive." At the same time, Kerry is someone who is constantly reaching out for advice. "The Kerry political world is always expanding," says his longtime adviser John Marttila.

That can be a good thing and a bad one for those within that world. People who have worked with him say that when things are going well and Kerry is confident in his strategy and team--as seems to be the case now--he is a nearly ideal boss, focused on managing the big picture and rarely sweating the details. When things get rocky--like when his campaign was struggling to get its footing last fall--his tendency to consult widely but keep his own counsel can drive aides crazy. "He is famous for keeping people in the dark and for second-guessing and going around people for advice," says an associate. "There are very few people he trusts unreservedly."

If Kerry's trust is given only sparingly, his loyalty isn't. Among the legions of advisers and strategists in his 2004 campaign are about a dozen like Marttila and pollster Tom Kiley who can trace their connection to Kerry all the way back to his failed 1972 campaign for Congress. Many of them had felt shut out by the first manager of Kerry's presidential campaign, Jim Jordan, which was in no small measure why Jordan was fired in November. When Senator Edward Kennedy's then chief of staff Cahill came aboard, she moved quickly into the role of gatekeeper, cutting off Kerry's back-channel contacts and ensuring that almost all communication went through her. (Cahill and Kerry talk at least half a dozen times a day.) She brought in some of her own team, most notably communications director Stephanie Cutter. But Cahill, a daughter of Boston's Dorchester neighborhood, also made sure Kerry's longest-standing advisers had a say in campaign strategy--something Kerry wanted as well. His Washington pollster Mark Mellman was the one who first spotted the opportunity for Kerry to revive his dying primary campaign by taking out a $6.4 million personal loan and making a counterintuitive pivot from New Hampshire to Iowa. But before Kerry signed off on the high-risk gambit, the candidate dispatched his old Boston hand Kiley to Iowa to confirm Mellman's numbers.