INDIANAPOLIS -- Lt. Gov. Joe Kernan announced Monday that he would not make a widely expected run for the governor's office in 2004.\nKernan, a former South Bend mayor who has held the state's second-highest office since 1997, said he and his wife had decided it was time for him to step aside after what will have been 18 years in elected office.\n"We just believe that at this time in our lives it is the right thing to do," Kernan said during a Statehouse news conference.\nHe said he had no plans for what he would do after his term ends in January 2005, although it was unlikely he would again be a political candidate.\n"I just don't see it, but I learned early on not to rule anything out," Kernan said.\nKernan's decision leaves Democrats without their expected nominee to succeed Gov. Frank O'Bannon, who cannot seek a third term. Kernan was considered the Democrats' best candidate to continue the party's hold on the governor's office, which it has won in each election since 1988.\nKernan, 56, had long been raising money for a possible gubernatorial run. His campaign committee's most recent finance report showed that as of the end of 2001 it had more than $1.85 million.\nKernan said he would be active in the last two years of the O'Bannon administration and work to support the Democratic nominee in 2004.\n"I will do all that I can to elect a Democrat as the next governor of the state of Indiana," he said.\nHouse Speaker Pro Tem Chet Dobis, D-Merrillville, said the decision shocked Democrats "since everyone thought Joe would be our unopposed nominee."\nDobis said the name of Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson came to mind immediately as someone who could fill the void.\n"But quite frankly, I see the party floundering at this point," Dobis said Monday. "At least Joe has given the party sufficient time to rally around a nominee."\nKernan was first elected South Bend's mayor in 1987 and was that city's longest-serving mayor until O'Bannon asked him in 1996 to join him on the Democratic ticket as lieutenant governor.\nRepublican leaders said they were equally stunned.\n"I am sincerely shocked," said House Minority Leader Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis. "It leaves a huge void for Democrats."\nBut it also, he said, "opens the door for a lot of people on both the Republican and Democrat side" to run for governor.\nSeveral Republicans already are running or exploring a run. They include conservative lobbyist Eric Miller and state Sens. Murray Clark of Indianapolis and Luke Kenley of Noblesville, and the 2000 GOP gubernatorial nominee, David McIntosh.\nMany Republicans said they hope White House Budget Director Mitch Daniels will run, and he has not ruled it out.\nBesides Peterson, other Democrats being mentioned as possible candidates included outgoing U.S. Rep. Tim Roemer; former state and national party chairman Joe Andrew; and former Indiana House Speaker John Gregg.
Gregg said Monday that he received several calls from legislators, political operatives and others on Sunday night encouraging him to run. He said that for now, he was just trying to digest Kernan's decision.\n"He is charming, he is enlightening and everyone was behind him," Gregg said. "I have never heard one Democrat say that he's not the man. If there was anyone that could take us back to the promised land, it was him. I'm just totally shocked"
