Less than a month ago, six Republicans--a doctor, a talk-show host, a radio advertising sales manager and three millionaires--were set to challenge one Democrat, a 32-year incumbent with the most famous last name in Massachusetts, for the U.S. Senate.

But last month, at the Republican State Convention in Springfield, Mass., party activists gave a ringing endorsement to millionaire W. Mitt Romney. And now only Romney and fellow businessperson John R. Lakian remain in the race for the right to face Sen. Edward M. Kennedy '54-'56 in November.

No matter who wins the primary, the Republicans candidate will be an entrepreneur who portrays himself as a self-made success story.

But David Denehy, Lakian's press secretary insists Lakian is the only truly self-made Republican in the race.

"Two of the candidates come from similar privileged background," Denehy says. "Lakian was able to build him-self and come with a different perspective."

Romney, 47, is the founder and chief executive of Bain Capital Company, a venture capital firm which operates under the control of Bain and Company, a management consulting firm that Romney helped to save from economic failure 1989.

Romney comes from a family with strong political roots: his father George was governor of Michigan in the 1960s, his mother ran for the a Michigan U.S. Senate seat in 1970, and his sister-in-law is now running for the U.S. Senate there as well.

A graduate of both Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School, Romney is a leader in the Mormon Church.

Lakian, a former gubernatorial candidate, portrays himself in his campaign literature as a Vietnam veteran who transformed himself into a "successful businessman."

According to his biography, Lakian "has donated and raised significant amounts of money for many GOP candidates, including Governor Weld."

Originally from Worcester, Mass., Lakian moved to New York years ago for business reasons. He now lives in Woods Hole, Mass., in what was previously his summer home.

In 1982, Lakian waged an unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign against Michael S. Dukakis. A Boston Globe article that year accused Lakian of giving false biographical information in interviews and in his campaign literature.

Among other fabrications reported, The Globe said Lakian falsely claimed that he had taken courses at Harvard and that his father had died of injuries sustained in World War II.

"I think there's that degree of slight fluff put into every candidate's brochure, every candidate's advertisements," Lakian told The Globe in 1982.

Lakian filed a libel suit against The Globe. A 1985 trial cleared the newspaper of the charges, as a Suffolk County jury ruled that the information in the article was factually correct.