"I think that we cannot afford to lose Senator Kennedy," she says. "For substantive reasons, I know we can't."

Watanabe says the only way Kennedy can help Roosevelt's campaign at this stage is by "raising the old-time Democratic religion."

While Roosevelt has attempted to distance himself from the liberal wing of the Democratic party, his running mate, Massie, a Somerville minister and Harvard Divinity School lecturer, proudly wears that designation.

Roosevelt and Massie hold differing views on a number of issues, including the death penalty and health care.

"[Massie] disagrees with Mark on a whole range of issues," Bachrach said on primary day.

Massie plans to remain firm in his ideological commitment throughout the election, says Cobb.

"I don't think it's possible to make it a non-issue," Cobb says. "But I'm not sure it's a bad thing."

Despite Massie's differences with Roosevelt, Robson says the Roosevelt campaign appreciates Massie's enthusiasm and energy as a campaigner.

But an enthusiastic and vibrant candidate for lieutenant governor, alone, cannot win an election, Bachrach says.

"I don't think the lieutenant governor decides who the governor will be," says the former candidate.

Although Massachusetts has typically been a strongly Democratic state (it even went for George McGovern during President Nixon's landslide in 1972), the importance of the Democratic party as an institution has begun to wane, Altshuler says.

"If I had never seen a poll, I would have thought that Roosevelt, with three million dollars, would be a very formidable candidate," he says. "Looking at the polls, you have to say he's got a severe uphill climb, even if he had three million dollars."

This lack of money will hurt Roosevelt both immediately and in the long run, Watanabe says.

"The Roosevelt campaign is like a B.B. gun against a Howitzer," Watanabe says. "Weld is pounding, pounding, pounding away relentlessly."

But Robson says he plans to ignore the pollsters for the time being, and guarantees a Roosevelt victory.

"I'm confident the Senator will be re-elected, and I'm confident Mark Roosevelt will be governor," Robson says. "This is going to be a late-developing race--we can be down six points on election day and still win."

Cobb says Massie, who was a surprise winner of the lieutenant governor nomination, has little confidence in pre-election surveys.

"I think Bob in particular does not put a lot of stock in polls," she says. "I think the primary generated zero interest until the last two weeks."

But without a large media buy and an upsurge of interest in the campaign, the odds of a Roosevelt victory are "slim," Watanabe says.

"There's always hope," he says. "But this is Columbia going against Michigan.