Tully Continues Role in Duke Campaign

BOSTON--Gov. Michael S. Dukakis said yesterday that a top aide who resigned from his presidential campaign last week is continuing to work for the campaign, but only in a transitional role.

Questions about the role of former Dukakis political director Paul Tully arose yesterday when columnist Jimmy Breslin quoted Tully as saying he helped plan some of the strategy for a candidate's debate last night in Miami.

The debate occurred six days after Tully and Dukakis campaign manager John Sasso resigned after the two admitted distributing a so-called "attack video" about the speech-borrowing practices of Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden. The video, which showed Biden borrowing from a British politician without attributing the phrases, triggered his withdrawal from the presidential campaign.

Breslin, writing in the New York Daily News, quoted Tully as saying, "I'm doing transition work...You just can't walk out of a campaign." When asked what kind of work he was doing, Tully was quoted as saying he was planning Dukakis' strategy for a debate involving the six Democratic candidates in Miami.

The article appeared to contradict earlier statements by Dukakis in Iowa last weekend when he said campaign manager John Sasso would have no further role in his campaign. Dukakis was never asked specifically about Tully, but he made it clear that the two would have no further role in the campaign.

Questioned about the Breslin column Tuesday outside the Massachusetts Statehouse, Dukakis said, "Paul and John will not have any relationship, formal or informal, with the campaign."

But Dukakis added, "Obviously, there has to be some orderly debriefing as they leave and new people come on to replace them. That, I think, everybody can understand. But beyond that there will be no relationship."

Dukakis said Tully is off the campaign payroll and is continuing to meet with campaign staffers only to make sure "we have the information that he has within him which his successor will have to have."

Dukakis campaign spokeswoman Amy DeHart said Tully, who formerly had served as a campaign aide to Gary Hart before Hart's withdrawal from the race, helped plan much of the debate strategy before his resignation. "He was very integral in the pre-debate strategy and we don't wait for the last minute on something like that," DeHart said.

DeHart said some "debriefing" meetings between Tully and campaign staff members have already occurred and will continue until his successor is chosen. The same goes for Sasso, she said. DeHart said she was unsure whether any meetings between Dukakis and Tully had occurred since his resignation.

DeHart called portions of the Breslin column inaccurate for implying that Tully was in Miami huddling with Dukakis and other aides to plan the debate strategy. But DeHart did not specify any details of the column that she believed were inaccurate.