Shannon also showed strength among Bartley delegates at the convention. Though Shannon held, a 36-32 percent lead over Kerry on the first ballot, it took Bartley's withdrawal after the third ballot to put him over the top. Most of Bartley's support swung over to Shannon on the fourth ballot, finally giving him the nomination.

The Boston Phoenix last week reported that Bartley played kingmaker, intentionally pushing Shannon over the top, after he knew he could not win the endorsement himself. The article argued logically that Bartley--who commands substantial support from the moderate wing of the party and in his base in the western part of the state--wanted to neutralize Kerry's campaign with Shannon.

Yet, others say that Bartley did not try to manipulate his delegates, and would not have been successful even if he had tried. "We didn't tell out people what to do," said Bartley press secretary Cheryl A. Delgreco. "There wasn't that large of a vote swing to say David Bartley swung the vote."

Shannon, himself, told The Globe after his victory. "It was clear from the beginning the way this endorsement was going to be won was by being the second choice of other candidates' delegates. We knew for example that those Bartley people would come to us after he dropped out."

"We didn't make any deal with David Bartley," said Shannon spokesperson Marcia Hertz. "David Bartley does not necessarily have the power to sway his delegates. It's a little presumptuous to say that."

Shannon could also build his vote at the expense of Connolly, who is something of a maverick politician who commands a small but loyal following, mostly in Boston.

One informed delegate at the convention said that Kerry operatives made a conscious effort to lift connolly over the 15 percent cut-off on the second ballot Connolly had received a mere 8 percent on the first ballot and had to scramble for sympathy votes to keep him in the race.

"If Connolly were out of the race, that would have allowed Shannon to grow," the delegate said "keeping him in keeps that Irish vote split three ways and keeps the conservative vote split two ways."

Connolly and Bartley are considered more conservative than Shannon and Kerry.

Kerry clearly is vulnerable, although he appears still to be in good shape in 1982, many say he would not have beaten the popular Evelyn Murphy in the lieutenant governor primary race, had not four other candidates, two of them women, been running.

But Kerry has strong liberal credentials, and is best known as a Vietnam War hero who led the anti-war movement upon his return, Shannon, a protege of House speaker Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill. Jr. (D-Cambridge), also has a strong liberal record in congress--he received a 96 percent liberal rating form the National Journal in 1982.

The result, said Goldman, will be a campaign that will concentrate on the minimal differences between the two, rather than on broader issues Kerry has labeled Shannon an establishment toady, though neither seems to have sprung a prominence from a wheatfield near Williamstown. Despite claims to the contrary, the Senate race is no reenactment of "Mr. Smith's Gone to Washington."