IT IS being called the "Battle of the Titans" and a "Lovely Donnybrook". Boston is agog as the Republican governor, Mr William Floyd Weld, battles to take the Senate seat of a Democrat, Mr John Forbes Kerry.
In theory Mr Weld should not have a hope in a traditional Democratic state, but he has rescued Massachusetts from bankruptcy, lowered taxes 15 times, was reelected governor in 1994 with 71 per cent of the vote and has Mr, Kerry, who has served two terms in the Senate, now desperately hanging on.
What fascinates Boston and Washington political pundits is the similarity between the two and the possibility that the winner may be a presidential candidate in the year 2000. They are both in their early 50s, over six feet tall, handsome, blue blood millionaires, law graduates of Harvard and Yale and married to wealthy and clever women.
With no shortage of money to throw around, they decided to come to a gentleman's agreement and limit spending in their campaigns to $6.9 million. They are having a series of eight debates in which they go for each other's jugular with gusto. It's all great fun for the onlookers and the media who pore over the careers of the two men who represent two widely differing aspects of the 1960s Vietnam War generation.
Mr Kerry was the decorated hero who turned against the war. He led anti war demonstrations on Capitol Hill in which veterans threw their medals on the steps.
The scholarly Mr Weld secured an exclusion from the draft because of a bad back which did not prevent him being a Harvard tennis, squash and hockey star. He abandoned a legal career in a Boston firm to go to Washington and work as Republican lawyer for the congressional committee preparing to indict Richard Nixon.
Mr Weld worked on the committee with Ms Hillary Rodham who was then dating the ambitious Arkansas politician, Mr Bill Clinton. Governor Weld has now offered to testify in Mrs Clinton's favour if needed as she faces Whitewater troubles, an offer which does not go down well with the Republican leadership.
Mr Weld, nicknamed "Big Red" for his colouring, is also more extrovert than the at times brooding Mr Kerry. Governor Weld delighted Bostonians during the summer when he dived fully clothed into the Charles River at a signing ceremony for a cleaner environment. Mr Kerry's election team were green with envy at the publicity.
Mr Weld is descended from a signatory of the Declaration of Independence. He jokes that the Welds arrived in America in 1630 with "only the shirts on their backs and $2,000 in gold Mr Weld also runs negative TV ads against Mr Kerry, portraying him as favouring welfare for drug addicts and criminals. Mr Kerry fights back, depicting Mr Weld as a conservative who would use a Senate seat to back harsh policies on welfare and support the unpopular Mr Newt Gingrich, whom Mr Weld once hailed as an "ideological soul mate".
Mr Kerry is descended from the first governor of Massachusetts, John Winthrop, and also has Irish ancestry. But he has the problem of being the junior senator in the shadow of Senator Teddy Kennedy, who makes sure, that he claims the credit for most of the federal funding that goes to Massachusetts. Mr Kerry is also accused of being aloof and too preoccupied with Washington.
Mr Weld has had six years as governor to make himself a household name. He even gets a grudging admiration from the Boston Irish, who can't help liking someone who sings their songs and confesses to indulging in "an amber coloured liquid". He dates his devotion to Irish culture to discovering The Playboy of the Western World.
Mr Weld is still remembered in Irish circles, however, for his role as a Department of Justice prosecutor in pursuing the extradition from the US of the escaped IRA prisoner, Joe Doherty, now serving a life sentence in the North. But Mr Weld claims to have softened his position on the extradition of those who seek "political status".
Mr Kerry, who is divorced, has remarried a Heinz family heiress said to be worth $69 million. They have renovated a $2 million mansion in the fashionable Beacon Hill area of Boston and Mr Kerry is now said to be more relaxed and easier with people.
He won Irish approval in the 1980s, by opposing Reagan legislation to ease the extradition of IRA men who had sought asylum in the US. He has now incurred the criticism of the Irish National Caucus of Father Sean McManus in Washington for not replying to a questionnaire sent to members of Congress to ascertain their views on the peace process, the MacBride principles and extradition.