US: John Kerry may have been third from last on the ballot paper yesterday but in his hometown Boston he appeared to be first in everyone's hearts, as they went to the polls to cast their votes in the Massachusetts Democratic primary, writes Ian Kilroy in Boston
In Boston's prestigious Beacon Hill neighbourhood, where Mr Kerry lives, the turnout was slow.
A state trooper leaned against the wall of the Massachusetts State House, the opulent polling station for Beacon Hill. He appeared bored.
"Not that many are coming out to vote," the police officer said. "I guess people feel it's a done deal." The same could be said of Connecticut, Rhode Island and Vermont: the other three New England states going to the polls yesterday, as part of the wider 10-state "Super Tuesday". With New England's reputation for left-leaning liberalism, a strong showing from local boy John Kerry was expected.
Certainly the word "Kerry" was on everyone's lips exiting the polls at the back of the Golden domed State House. Opposite the polling station, a lone political poster that read "John Kerry - president" said it all. John Edwards and the other contenders hadn't even bothered to campaign in New England close to election time. Neither had Mr Kerry.
"There were no commercials on TV from either Kerry or the others," said one Beacon Hill resident that had voted for Kerry. "I guess they presume Kerry will just carry this." Local architect, Richard Wills, was forthright speaking of his chosen candidate.
"I voted for my neighbour," he said plainly. "I think his record speaks for itself. I think he's a good man." Asked if he knew Mr Kerry personally, Mr Wills said he'd "seen him around".
Close neighbours to the Kerrys, Robert and Elizabeth Owens, were also out voting yesterday. Mr Owens, a venture capitalist and one-time member of the state legislature, said they lived near Mr Kerry's exclusive Louisburg Square residence in Beacon Hill, just a few blocks from the State House.
"When they were renovating their house Mr Kerry came with an architect to look at the details of the nineteenth century interior of our house," said Mr Owens, who added that he felt John Kerry had a good chance of becoming US president and beating Mr Bush in November.
"The more time that goes by the stronger I feel his chances are," said Mrs Owens, who agreed with her husband that jobs, the economy and Iraq were the important issues in the coming election.
While none of the Kerry family was in evidence at the State House yesterday, local court reporter, Deborah Roth, who was on her way to vote for Kerry at Boston City Hall, said she'd heard the Kerry family had cast absentee votes.
"You won't see any Kerrys this morning," she said, "but you might see a few Kennedys." But the only apparent Kennedy was the bronze statue of John Fitzgerald Kennedy that adorns the front of the State House, near Boston Common. Supporters of the senator from Massachusetts hope a similar statute will one day commemorate their man.
Indeed, Kerry supporters have been drawing parallels with Kennedy throughout the campaign, hoping that some of the memory of the Camelot magic might rub off.
Kerry moved in elite Boston circles with the Kennedys in the early 1960s. Like Kennedy, John Forbes Kerry is a rich Boston Catholic. Even their initials are the same: JFK. The early endorsement of Edward Kennedy could only have helped efforts to harness the Kennedy aura.
But what works in Massachusetts might not work elsewhere in the United States. One Boston resident voting yesterday described Kerry as "an old Yankee with old Yankee money, handed down from generation to generation, like most on Beacon Hill". The massive Heinz fortune inherited by Mr Kerry's wife adds further to Mr Kerry's image of belonging to an elite - not something that goes down well with southern voters.
Kerry supporter and long-time Beacon Hill resident, Charles Merrill, worries about this. "I think that Massachusetts is going to go safely for Kerry," he says, "but I worry if Kerry can carry the mid-western and western states." What Mr Merrill knows is that in November a different America will vote: one far from the redbrick wealth and leafy lanes of affluent Beacon Hill.