Edley, for example, worked in the Jimmy Carter White House before becoming a professor at the Harvard Law School in 1981. During his tenure at Harvard, he took time off to work as the national issues director for Michael Dukakis's 1988 presidential campaign.

From 1993 to 1995, Edley worked as part of the Clinton Administration, serving first as associate director of the Office of Management and Budget. Later, Edley directed the White House review of affirmative action.

"I had a significant amount of contact with Gore, and developed a relationship through interactions on several different policy issues.," Edley says. "I became a huge admirer of his values and his approach to policy issues."

His close relationship with Vice President Gore was one of the reasons Edley was brought on board the Gore 2000 campaign last year as a general issues adviser. He has taken several months off of the campaign since then, but plans to resume his activity this month.

Bush, regarded as the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, has several Harvard professors on his staff whose diverse government connections include time spent as part of the Reagan administration

Baker Professor of Economics Martin S. Feldstein, an economic adviser to Bush, served as chair of the Council of Economic Advisers during Ronald Reagan's first term in the White House. Recently, he has served as an economic adviser to Mass. Governor A. Paul Cellucci.

Fried, who says he began working on political campaigns in the 1970s, served as Solicitor General under Reagan and as a federal judge until his retirement on July 1. While Fried was introduced to the campaign by a former student who works there now, he regards his connection with the campaign as inevitable.