The Bayh boomlet

National | POLITICS: A liberal Massachusetts Democrat like John Kerry could use a ticket-balancing moderate: Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana | Russ Pulliam

Evan Bayh, Indiana's Democratic U.S. senator, may be somewhere near the top of the list of vice presidential prospects. His Midwest roots could prove to be more important to front-runner John Kerry than the South in an attempt to unseat President Bush. Though he looks moderate in the Indiana political context, Sen. Bayh is one of the most conservative prominent Democrats on the national scene.

Sen. Bayh's name pops up in most of the recent political stories about Sen. Kerry's choice for a running mate. His name appears to have first been mentioned for vice president in the national media in a New York Times story last September, as reporter Adam Nagrourney speculated that several presidential candidates might wind up being considered for vice president. The son of another U.S. senator from Indiana, Birch Bayh, Evan Bayh clearly has harbored presidential aspirations, but at the age of 49 he faces no biological rush to seek the top office. His father, more liberal than the son, made a brief run for the presidency in 1976 and lost his Indiana Senate seat to Dan Quayle in 1980.