After Democrat Hubert "Skip" Humphrey lost the Minnesota Governor's race to Jesse "The Body" Ventura, his next stop was Harvard, where he joined the Institute of Politics (IOP) as a Fellow last spring.

Although the IOP attracts Fellows from a variety of fields, Humphrey wasn't the first prominent election loser to come to the Kennedy School of Government (KSG).

Former Mass. Governor Michael Dukakis took a professorship at the KSG after he lost to George Bush in 1988. Geraldine Ferraro, Walter Mondale's running mate in 1984, came as an IOP fellow in 1988, four years after her election loss.

Some IOP and KSG officials say these prominent cases have given them a reputation as a place where electoral non-winners can land softly.

Catherine A. McLaughlin, Deputy Director of KSG says the KSG does seek fellows and faculty among politicians whose careers are in flux.

"We don't take people at the end of their careers," McLaughlin says, "but instead those who are in transition. The goal is to find a diverse group of people."

Still, McLaughlin says, most of the recruitment comes from other available groups of politicians--those who have just retired or are prevented from running for their post again because of term limits.

The main qualifications sought in a new fellow or faculty member, according to McLaughlin, are their expertise on particular issues and their ability to inspire and educate students.