Inside The Brain Trust

By Jacob V. Lamar

Michael Dukakis' career has been marked by a supreme self-sufficiency. As Governor, he has tended to keep his own counsel. When asked to name his boss's five or six closest advisers, a Dukakis aide said, "Some people might argue that there aren't five or six." But in recent years Dukakis has learned, if only by necessity, to rely on a wider group. As the campaign gathers momentum, the outlines of a Dukakis brain trust are taking shape.

A stint in Cambridge helps gain admittance. In fact, some aides openly worry about the appearance of a Harvard mafia. The Governor's closest confidant is his Harvard Law School roommate Paul Brountas. As campaign chairman, Brountas, 56, is a lot like the candidate, always erring on the side of caution. But when staffers want to make a special appeal to Dukakis, they usually do it through his old friend. Should Dukakis win in the fall, Brountas, a senior partner at Hale and Dorr, would be a likely candidate for Attorney General.

Campaign Manager Susan Estrich, 35, is likely to be part of any Administration. A former Harvard Law Review president and Supreme Court clerk who is on leave as a professor at the law school, Estrich took over the campaign during the turmoil after John Sasso's resignation. Another 35-year- old Harvard Law School professor, Christopher Edley, has done an outstanding job as the campaign's issues director. The top-ranking black on the Governor's team, Edley could wind up as chief domestic-policy adviser. Standing in the wings is Sasso, the mastermind of the campaign, who left after distributing the Joseph Biden "attack video" last fall. From his office at a Boston advertising agency, Sasso has kept in touch with the candidate. Should Dukakis go all the way to the White House, Sasso is likely to follow, perhaps as chief of staff.

Jack Corrigan, 31, who has worked for Dukakis seven years, is a talented, tough-minded operator who set up the candidate's national organization. Nicholas Mitropoulos, 36, Dukakis' constant shadow on the campaign trail, is an earthy, good-natured pol. A former associate director of Harvard's Institute of Politics, Mitropoulos became the Governor's director of personnel. As head of Dukakis' department of revenue, Ira Jackson, 39, a former associate dean of Harvard's John Fitzgerald Kennedy School of Government, was largely responsible for Dukakis' highly touted tax-collection efforts. If Jackson could be lured away from his job at the Bank of Boston, he could fill a top position at the Treasury or the Office of Management and Budget.

The Kennedy School faculty has provided Dukakis with four of his most trusted consultants on foreign affairs: Graham Allison, 48, dean of the school and an easygoing administrator; Joseph Nye, 51, an expert on nuclear stability who may become National Security Adviser; Robert Murray, 53, a soft-spoken former Assistant Secretary of Defense; and Al Carnesale, 51, a politically astute arms-control specialist. From outside the Harvard mafia comes Madeleine Albright, 51, a Georgetown professor who gets along well with Dukakis and has figured prominently in handling foreign policy campaign issues. If elected, Dukakis might reach beyond his circle of advisers to Paul Warnke, the veteran liberal advocate of arms control; Warren Christopher, former Under Secretary of State; and Peter Tarnoff, president of New York's Council on Foreign Relations and occasional adviser to Democratic candidates.

On economic issues, Investment Banker Felix Rohatyn, 59, could be the pointman of a Dukakis presidency. Rohatyn, who helped rescue New York City from its fiscal apocalypse a decade ago, would be a natural Treasury Secretary in almost any Democratic Administration. Kennedy School Professor Robert Reich, the guru of industrial policy, has written several economic memos for the Dukakis campaign, but his sometimes headstrong style has kept him out of the inner circle. Even if he does not become part of a Dukakis Administration, however, many of his ideas will.

With reporting by Michael Riley with Dukakis