Taking Charge

Professor of Law Susan R. Estrich knew it would take a lot of politicking to revive the damaged candidacy of Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis when campaign manager John Sasso resigned last October.

Then again, politics was Estrich's game.

And when Estrich took over for Sasso, who left his post after he admitted to sabotaging the campaign of Sen. Joseph Biden (D--Del.), the Dukakis campaign recovered rapidly.

"Susan is someone who has been in the campaign since the beginning," Dukakis spokesman Christopher Akey says. "It was a very smooth transition when she came in because everybody here already knew her. She's firmly in control."

Estrich first worked for Dukakis on his 1982 gubernatorial victory over Edward J. King, and has been a part of the Dukakis presidential campaign since he declared his candidacy last March.

"She is a very able person and has a lot of experience," Law School Dean James Vorenberg '49 says. "I assume she was picked because the Governor thinks so highly of her."

Estrich is no rookie in national politics, either. The erstwhile professor served as deputy national issues director during the 1980 presidential campaign of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy '54 (D--Mass.). Four years later, she worked for former Vice President Walter Mondale's presidential campaign as a senior policy advisor.

Her experience is not limited to candidates. Estrich has been a prominent figure in the Democratic National Committee since serving on the the platform committee in 1984. She also co-chaired the 1985 Democratic Fairness Commission, which set the rules for this year's primary race.

"She was selected because she is brilliant, very good with people, and has an amazing amount of political experience," says Professor of Law Phillip B. Heymann.

But experience doesn't count for everything, and Estrich took her position at a potentially disastrous point in the Dukakis campaign. Sasso, a long-time friend and advisor of the Massachusetts governor, had resigned after admitting he distributed a videotape of several apparently plagiarized Biden speeches. The tape forced that candidate to withdraw from the race.

Quickly affirming that Sasso would no longer be involved with the campaign and that she had not known of the sabotage, Estrich pushed the campaign beyond the scandal and attracted public attention to issues of policy.

"I intend to ensure that this campaign meets the very high standards that Mike Dukakis has set for us," Estrich said after she was named campaign manager in October. "This will be a positive, issue-oriented campaign."

Dukakis did move past what Estrich had called a "bump in a long road," and behind Estrich's organization, Dukakis triumphed in the New Hampshire and Minnesota primaries. On the eve of this week's Super Tuesday primaries across the South, polls predict Dukakis will finish among the leaders.

"[Estrich] commands a lot of respect," Akey says. "She's done a terrific job here. Under Susan Estrich's leadership, Michael Dukakis' campaign has come a long way."

Estrich made first made history when she became the first woman president of the Harvard Law Review in 1976. This year she stands alone again as the only woman campaign manager in the Democratic field.

"I think it's great that she's a trailblazer as a woman campaign manager, but I don't think it's really an issue as far as her performance is concerned," Akey says.

If Dukakis does make it to the White House, colleagues speculate that the governor would likely offer her a high level position in the administration.

"I think if Dukakis won, she would surely end up in Washington as a very important advisor to him," Heymann says, "If she had never run his campaign, she would have been likely to be an advisor for any of the democratic candidates. She must know Dukakis' constituency, his views, and what he feels strongly about better than almost anyone else. The sky's the limit."