Tsongas

WASHINGTON -- There's something rather appealing about the spectacle of die-hard supporters of former Sen. Paul Tsongas refusing to give up hope and attempting to keep his presidential campaign afloat even after Tsongas himself let the air out of his life raft.In an era in which increasing numbers of political professionals have moved in on the election process for the very large buck to be made, with more interest in the candidate's wallet than his commitments, it's refreshing if perhaps quixotic to see the Tsongas Tcitizen Tsoldiers, as they call themselves, refusing to quit.

BostonFormer Sen. Paul E. Tsongas in a sense sang former Gov. Edmund G. "Jerry" Brown Jr.'s song about the inordinate role of money in presidential politics in his withdrawal statement here Thursday. In lamenting that lack of money to compete with Gov. Bill Clinton in paid television had forced him to quit the Democratic nomination race, Mr. Tsongas made a case for the argument that equal segments of the public airwaves be made available without cost to bona fide candidates, as a means of leveling the playing field.

BOSTON -- Contrary to their earlier assurances, Paul E. Tsongas' doctors now say that he suffered a recurrence of lymphoma in 1987, less than a year after undergoing an experimental bone marrow transplant, and was treated with an additional course of radiation for the cancer.Mr. Tsongas said in an interview Monday that he did not recall his doctors saying that a biopsy of a lymph node from his armpit in the summer of 1987 showed cancer, as the doctors say they did.Mr. Tsongas, who is the first known cancer survivor to run for president, has remained free of lymphoma, a cancer of the immune system, for five years.

BOSTON -- Former U.S. senator and presidential candidate Paul Tsongas, who acknowledged that he is suffering a recurrence of lymph gland cancer, is calling on all future presidential candidates to disclose their complete medical history."

WASHINGTON -- Looking beyond Feb. 18 and the New Hampshire primary, Democratic presidential candidate Paul E. Tsongas says his campaign is "quite well organized" in Maryland and Maine.The former senator from Massachusetts told reporters yesterday he has 600 volunteers in Maryland, which holds its primary March 3. Maine Democrats will caucus Feb. 23 to select delegates.Mr. Tsongas tried to dispel analysts' criticism that he's a New England regional candidate who will fade after the New Hampshire primary.

DENVER -- It was just another in a seemingly endless series of Democratic presidential debates last night -- until the subject turned to nuclear power.Then the candidates went ballistic."We do not need to do what Senator Tsongas wants to do, to build hundreds of more nuclear plants," said Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton."That is a lie! That is a lie! That is a lie!" interrupted Paul E. Tsongas, a former senator from Massachusetts who is leading Mr. Clinton in Denver polls coming into Tuesday's Colorado primary.

Susan Wood of Aberdeen is a delegate to the Democratic National Convention. A graduate student in the School of Public Health at the Johns Hopkins University, she is writing each day of her experiences.Paul Tsongas addressed his delegates yesterday. There were more than 500 of us in a room.The Tsongas delegates come from 30 states and are extraordinarily committed. He told us his biggest accomplishment was those delegates from states that held primaries after he had suspended his campaign.

Concord, N.H. -- THE POLITICAL smart-alecks (including us) laughed nine months ago when former Sen. Paul Tsongas announced he was running for president. Another Greek liberal from Massachusetts? Give us a break. But the laughter has long passed, and while Mr. Tsongas is still rated a very long shot for the Democratic nomination, he continues to cling near the top of most polls for the Feb. 18 New Hampshire primary. The current troubles of Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas have raised the distinct possibility that Mr. Tsongas could win the primary here.

MIAMI -- Once again yesterday, Paul E. Tsongas' voting strength was limited to upper-income, highly educated whites, and he was unable to crack into Bill Clinton's basis of support among other Democrats, surveys of voters leaving the polling places showed.That breakdown was especially bad news for Mr. Tsongas, since the surveys showed the Democratic electorate in Florida to be much more heavily white and much more highly educated than it is likely to be in most primaries down the road.Mr.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton came out swinging at his Democratic rivals yesterday, accusing Paul E. Tsongas of advocating "trickle-down economics" and bringing in a Vietnam veteran to accuse Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey of being "AWOL" in the war on drugs.At a speech at the Radisson Hotel in Denver in the morning, Mr. Clinton dismissed former Massachusetts Sen. Tsongas' economic proposals as smacking of "trickle-down economics." He mocked Mr. Tsongas' concern for investors and entrepreneurs, saying it comes at the expense of everyday workers.