by RICHARD E. BERG-ANDERSSON
TheGreenPapers.com Staff

What follows is a listing- by 'GROUP's based on office and service therein- of those who would (all things being equal- that is, factoring out such things as relative age, relative health, relative "localism", etc. of each individual so listed) otherwise be likely candidates for the Democratic Nominations for President and Vice-President of the United States in 2004. Rather than being a predicting mechanism of any kind as to who the most likely announced Democrat candidates for the Nation's highest office will be as we now begin heading into the next Presidential Election cycle, this listing is more to illustrate the more usual "minimum requirements"- if you will- for one's being seriously considered as a potential nominee for either high national office by either one of the two Major Political Parties in the United States.

With all due respect to the rumored political intentions (at least as of this writing) of the outgoing Democratic U.S. House Leader, Congressman Dick Gephardt (D-Missouri), it is quite difficult to be nominated for- let alone be elected- President of the United States directly from (or having last served in elective office in) the lower house of the Congress of the United States. The higher likelihood, given recent American political history, is that not only is the eventual 2004 Democratic Party Nominee for President already within GROUP I of the following list but that that Nominee's choice for running mate is also now to be found somewhere within either Group on the following list (although this last might, indeed, prove less likely-- for instance, Dick Cheney would not have appeared at all within either GROUP on a GOP equivalent to this list had 'The Green Papers' existed four years ago to the day that this one is being posted!) Perhaps, in the end, Dick Gephardt should really be aiming for VICE-President (after all, that current V.P. named Dick never served in an elective office above that of 'Member of Congress' either!)

Also, not to get TOO far ahead of ourselves here, keep an eye on the names in GROUP II even well after the Presidential Election on 2 November 2004, for- depending on their individual political fates, as well as those of the actual Democrats who will be running for President and Vice-President in less than two years- they include the persons who will likely be making up a healthy chunk of the next GROUP I for the Democrats as we, once post 2004, then begin to look toward the 2008 Presidential Election!

GROUP I. POTENTIAL PRESIDENTIAL TIMBER
(or, at the very least, serious VICE-PRESIDENTIAL consideration!)

Albert A. "Al" Gore, Jr. of TENNESSEE (2000 Presidential Nominee)

B. GOVERNORS who will be serving in at least their second term by the time of the next Presidential Election

[NOTE: Those listed in boldface are in Governor's Chairs up for re-election in 2003 and will have to win re-election in order to remain on this list]

CALIFORNIA's Gray Davis
INDIANA's Frank O'Bannon
IOWA's Tom Vilsack
MISSISSIPPI's Ronnie Musgrove
WASHINGTON's Gary Locke

C. UNITED STATES SENATORS who were first elected to that body prior to the last Presidential Election

[NOTE: Those in italics (whether boldface italics or not) are former GOVERNORS, which is actually something of a "plus"]

ARKANSAS' Blanche Lambert Lincoln
CALIFORNIA's Barbara Boxer
CALIFORNIA's Dianne Feinstein
CONNECTICUT's Christopher Dodd
CONNECTICUT's Joe Lieberman (2000 Vice-Presidential Nominee)
DELAWARE's Joe Biden
FLORIDA's Bob Graham
HAWAII's Daniel Akaka
HAWAII's Daniel Inouye
ILLINOIS' Richard Durbin
INDIANA's Evan Bayh
IOWA's Tom Harkin
LOUISIANA's John Breaux
LOUISIANA's Mary Landrieu
MARYLAND's Barbara Mikulski
MARYLAND's Paul Sarbanes
MASSACHUSETTS' Ted Kennedy
MASSACHUSETTS' John Kerry
MICHIGAN's Carl Levin
MONTANA's Max Baucus
NEVADA's Harry Reid
NEW MEXICO's Jeff Bingaman
NEW YORK's Chuck Schumer
NORTH CAROLINA's John Edwards
NORTH DAKOTA's Kent Conrad
NORTH DAKOTA's Byron Dorgan
OREGON's Ron Wyden
RHODE ISLAND's Jack Reed
SOUTH CAROLINA's Fritz Hollings
SOUTH DAKOTA's Tom Daschle
SOUTH DAKOTA's Tim Johnson
VERMONT's Patrick Leahy
WASHINGTON's Patty Murray
WEST VIRGINIA Robert Byrd
WEST VIRGINIA's Jay Rockefeller
WISCONSIN's Russ Feingold
WISCONSIN's Herbert Kohl

D. GOVERNORS who recently have either voluntarily retired OR who could not run for re-election due to Term Limits AND, in addition, did not seek election to the U.S. Senate

ALASKA's Tony Knowles
HAWAII's Ben Cayetano
KENTUCKY's Paul Patton
MARYLAND's Parris Glendening
OREGON's John Kitzhaber
VERMONT's Howard Dean

GROUP II. VICE-PRESIDENTIAL FODDER at best

A. GOVERNORS elected to their first term at the time of or since the last Presidential Election

[NOTE: MICHIGAN's Jennifer Granholm is a native of Canada and, thus, is not qualified to serve as either President or Vice-President of the United States under the "natural born Citizen" provision of Article II, Section 1, clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution; hence her name does not appear within the following listing.]

ARIZONA's Janet Napolitano
DELAWARE's Ruth Ann Minner
ILLINOIS' Rod Blagojevich
KANSAS' Kathleen Sebelius
MAINE's John Baldacci
MISSOURI's Bob Holden
NEW JERSEY's Jim McGreevey
NEW MEXICO's Bill Richardson
NORTH CAROLINA's Mike Easley
OKLAHOMA's Brad Henry
OREGON's Ted Kulongoski
PENNSYLVANIA's Ed Rendell
TENNESSEE's Phil Bredesen
VIRGINIA's Mark Warner
WEST VIRGINIA's Bob Wise
WISCONSIN's Jim Doyle
WYOMING's Dave Freudenthal

B. UNITED STATES SENATORS first elected to that body at the time of or since the last Presidential Election

[NOTE: Those in italics are former GOVERNORS, which is actually something of a "plus"]

ARKANSAS' Mark Pryor
DELAWARE's Thomas Carper
FLORIDA's Bill Nelson
GEORGIA's Zell Miller
MICHIGAN's Debbie Stabenow
MINNESOTA's Mark Dayton
NEBRASKA's Ben Nelson
NEW JERSEY's Jon Corzine
NEW JERSEY's Frank Lautenberg [returning Senator]
NEW YORK's Hillary Rodham Clinton
WASHINGTON's Maria Cantwell