Gravel: Seeking Some Mileage for His 'National Initiative'

WASHINGTON — "What else am I going to do with my life?" asked Mike Gravel, the 77-year-old Democratic candidate for president.

Yes, the feisty former senator from Alaska is still in the race, although he no longer appears in most of the televised candidate debates.

"Skullduggery. Corporate censorship at its worst," he called the decision to keep so-called "second-tier candidates" out of these forums and away from the national attention they generate. "It's a combination of Democratic Party and corporate interests conspiring to not have me there. I'm an embarrassment to them" because he argues that Democrats as well as Republicans are responsible for the Iraq war.

But Gravel (pronounced gra-VELL) promised that he is in the presidential campaign through the Democratic National Convention in August and, even if he doesn't receive the nomination, beyond to the election on Nov. 3.

"What's driving me is message," he explained in a telephone interview. "I've got a message that I want the American people to hear — empowerment."

He is philosophical about his chances to reach the White House.

"If I succeed, I succeed. If I don't, I don't." In the latter case, he believes, someone else will carry forth his message.

"The American media doesn't understand that," he said.

Maverick from Massachusetts

Maurice Robert "Mike" Gravel was born in 1930 in Springfield, Mass., the dyslexic son of French-speaking immigrants from Quebec. His learning disability would not be diagnosed for decades so he suffered scholastically.

His father, a house painter, worked hard but barely spoke English and his mother took great pride in public service but wasn't that concerned with the political side of it, Gravel said. "But I've been working on campaigns since I was 15 years old. I felt the way to make a difference was to try to get good people elected to public office. And I had an ambition to make something of myself."

After high school and an Army tour, he graduated from Columbia University. He figured on beginning a political career — with New Mexico or Alaska the places where he felt he could make a quick impact.

In 1956, he drove to Alaska, then still a territory, after "I decided that I don't like very warm weather." Twelve years after his arrival, he was elected to the U.S. Senate from his adopted state. In between, he married a former beauty queen, fathered two children and served in the state legislature.

In the Senate, he opposed the Vietnam War and attracted national attention when he placed thousands of pages of the Pentagon Papers into the Congressional Record — defying warnings about disclosing classified documents and guaranteeing public access to the complete documents. Excerpts of the Pentagon's secret examination of the war had already been published in the New York Times and Washington Post after being leaked by Daniel Ellsberg, a former Defense Department analyst.

Gravel's filibuster against legislation to extend the military draft — which thwarted consideration of the bill backed by then-President Nixon for five months — also aided the push toward all-volunteer armed forces.

But the maverick liberal senator from Alaska angered Democratic Party officials in 1972 when he insisted on mounting a campaign to become presidential nominee George McGovern's vice presidential candidate — even though McGovern preferred Missouri Sen. Thomas Eagleton. In 1980, Gravel lost the Democratic primary in Alaska in his bid for a third term.

Depressed and going through a divorce, he tried a career in real estate but struggled in private life for most of the decade.

In 1989, however, he took up the cause that would consume his life from then on. He believes the nation needs a more direct democracy — government through ballot initiatives decided specifically by the citizens as is often the case in California and other states. He calls this notion the "National Initiative" and cites it as the basis of his presidential campaign.

"I was really giving up on representative government" when he took up the idea, said Gravel. "I consider myself a theorist. ... The power of government is lawmaking but people could legislate by initiative."

He established a foundation to develop and promote this "National Initiative."

"People want to be empowered — but they don't know how," he said. Showing them how "is the reason I'm running."

Pushing the National Initiative

Presidential candidates who campaign on despite what appears to outsiders as sure defeat "are in politics to influence the national debate," said political analyst Larry Sabato.

"The attention any presidential candidate gets is addictive to them — the media, the crowds, the instant recognition, the platform," said Sabato, author of "A More Perfect Constitution" and director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

"Dropping your candidacy is like being out of office — it is exile to a dark, desolate Siberia. The ride is better than any at an amusement park, and no attendant can tell you to leave."

Rather than a thrilling ride, Whitney Stewart Gravel calls a presidential campaign "an incredible ordeal."

"I wasn't married to Mike when he was in office before, so this is foreign to me," said the candidate's wife.

Gravel was divorced and out of the Senate when he went on a blind date with a friend of hers, said Mrs. Gravel. "She came back and told me, 'I've met a man you're going to like.'"

They married in 1984. A former staffer for Sen. Jacob Javits, a liberal Republican from New York, Mrs. Gravel has always been interested in politics. But she found a newfound respect for candidates and their families after entering the elective process.

"There has been a lot of stress" while being "analyzed and criticized," she admitted. Even candidates she disagrees with politically deserve praise "for their willingness to put themselves forward," she said.

The Gravels were visiting friends in Mexico when the idea of a presidential run arose. The friend said if you want to see the National Initiative ever enacted, "do something unusual. Run for president," Gravel said.

"Mike and I both laughed at the time," said Mrs. Gravel.

But, in the subsequent weeks, the idea took hold. Some friends warned "you'll put your legacy at risk," said Gravel. "But I thought 'What the hell? What legacy? When you're dead, it won't make any difference.'"

"I took a deep breath and said 'give it a try,'" said his wife.

"No visibility. That's where they kill you," said Gravel. "When I'm in a debate, I raise money."

But now that he's no longer in the debates, he describes his campaign's financial situation as "terrible."

"I'm having trouble making payroll" for a tiny campaign staff and having difficulties qualifying for matching federal funds, he explained. Potential donors are "reluctant to invest in a guy of my age who is no longer in power," he said. "They have to give just on the basis of the cause."

He still makes headlines occasionally. Eyebrows were raised around the country, for instance, when he told students at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire that pot was preferable to booze.

"I'm sure a lot of you have tripped out on alcohol," Gravel said at the private school that had arranged speeches by all the presidential candidates. "It's a lot safer to do it on marijuana."

Gravel has long supported legalization of marijuana and decriminalization of other drugs. WMUR-TV in New Hampshire sent out the tape showing the candidate advising, "And with respect to other drugs, if you've got a problem with coke, go to a doctor, get a prescription and get it filled at a drug store."

Still optimistic, Gravel believes the national media will focus on his "National Initiative" ideas in the months between the primaries and the conventions. He said he will also be "hawking my own book," entitled "Citizen Power: A Mandate for Change" soon on the campaign trail — raising money while spreading his message.

The book, he predicts, "will be controversial."

This report contains material from The Washington Post and Salon.com.