Roosevelt's campaign managers, however, have been reluctant to draw sharp distinctions between him and his primary opponents, preferring instead to focus on November.

"Mark is focused on Governor Weld," said Roosevelt spokesperson Dwight D. Robson. "He really has no interest in bickering with his fellow Democrats.

"But if you had to point to something that distinguishes him," Robson adds, "{It is} clearly his record of achievement.

All three candidates are expressing confidence. Barrett aides tout the strength of a $370,000 television campaign launched last week.

This latest advertising campaign labels Barrett a "Tsongas Democrat."

That title was bestowed without consultation with 1992 presidential candidate Paul E. Tsongas, the former U.S. senator who labored for nine months in relative obscurity two years ago to win a couple of presidential primaries then drop out of the race altogether.

All the while, Weld--with $2.2 million in campaign funds as well as nearly half a million already spent on television ads--rests on his record, a record which most Democrats say is vulnerable to attack.

"This guy's performance isn't so wonderful that he can't be taken out," Michael Goldman, a Democratic consultant, told the New York Times last week. "Luckily for him, instead of running against {U.S. Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II (D-Cambridge)} or any other serious Democrat, he ended up with the B-team. They've got no dough and no name recognition. And the reality is that you can't beat somebody with nobody."

Kennedy decided he would rather stay in Washington, even though insiders say he would very likely give Weld a race.

Instead, polls show Weld winning by a two-to-one margin over any of his potential opponents.

And Weld has been unafraid to tease all three opponents, referring to them once as the "three amigos" and running television commercials painting all three as typical tax-and-spend Democrats.