Election gamble pays off for Edwards

By ANDREW BUNCOMBE

WASHINGTON - For John Edwards it was a gamble that has truly paid off.

Last September, the millionaire trial lawyer turned politician announced he would not be seeking re-election as Senator for North Carolina so he could concentrate on his run for the presidency.

Even then - amid the growing clamour surrounding fellow Democratic hopeful Howard Dean - it was clear to most pundits Mr Edwards was at best a long-shot to top the ticket.

Supporters of Mr Edwards, 51, say that decision underlined the candidate's determination and resilience.

Others might say it pointed to a political canniness and ambition - running for the presidency but in reality aiming for a slot as vice president - often ignored by all the talk of Edwards' southern charm.

That Edwards has charisma in buckets is beyond doubt. During the series of primary elections that started last January with the Iowa caucuses, the youthful senator warmed, flirted with and energised audiences across the freezing state, whether he was speaking to several hundred or just a few dozen squeezed into a school-hall.

His persistent message was that there were "Two Americas". Too many people, he said, were in that America stricken by poverty and a lack of opportunity.

It was an environment to which Edwards said he could relate. Born in Seneca, South Carolina, where his father Wallace worked for 36 years in a textile mill and his mother, Bobbie, in the post office, Edwards grew up in a blue collar environment.

His family moved to the small North Carolina town of Robbins, which has just one set of traffic lights, and he excelled at the local High School.

"He was a good student and he never bothered me," the former principal Cecil Hackney told The Independent when it visited the town where Edwards' parents still live.

"He was always in the right place at the right time. He was kind of laid-back. He was not arrogant."

Edwards' route out of Robbins and a job in the mill took him to North Carolina State University and from there to law school and a hugely successful, 20-year-career as a trial lawyer.

He won more than $150m worth of verdicts or settlements in 60 cases in the 1990s, often against large corporations and insurance companies.

One of his most celebrated cases involved a nine-year-old girl who was badly injured when she was caught in a swimming pool drain.

"I was more than just their lawyer," Mr. Edwards said of his clients. "I cared about them. Their cause was my cause."

He also did very nicely from his career as a lawyer: in 1996 he was named one of the eight Lawyers of the Year by Lawyers Weekly USA.

His personal net worth is estimated at between $9m-$40m. But 1996 was also the year in which tragedy struck Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, whom he had met at college.

That year their son, Wade, was killed when high winds swept his Jeep off a road. Edwards still cites a trip he and Wade made the previous year to climb Mount Kilimanjaro as one of his most meaningful accomplishments.

In the aftermath of his son's death, Edwards decided to change paths, putting aside his career as a lawyer and aiming for the US Senate.

He won the seat in 1998, beating the Republican incumbent Lauch Faircloth. Very quickly the skilled orator was making a name for himself in Congress.

He and his wife also had two more children, five-year-old Emma Claire and Jack, three. They already had a daughter, Catherine, now aged 21.

Edwards' legal background was useful in helping various senators navigate the Clinton impeachment hearings.

He also won early praise for helping push a patients' rights bill through the Senate, though it never got final passage.

He was such a rising star that - along with John Kerry - he was considered as a possible running mate for Democrat Al Gore in 2000.

He did not get the nod, but could at least take comfort in People magazine's decision to name him as the 'Sexiest Politician in 2000'.

Edwards entered the Democratic presidential race with much fanfare at the start of 2003. Many felt Edwards' star had risen too quickly and that he would be unable to satisfy the expectations that had been placed on him.

Some who had once been fans of Edwards started to have doubts after a disastrous performance on the influential 'Meet the Press" political talk show in May, 2002, in which he came across as inexperienced and naive.

That Edwards persevered with his campaign and then staked his political future on it - deciding he would not stand for re-election to the Senate if he was unsuccessful in his bid for the White House - undoubtedly persuaded many Democrats of his resolve.

But early on in the primary campaign seasons it also became clear that Edwards was winning over ordinary people with his compelling oratorical skills, intelligence and a political flair that matched that of Bill Clinton.

People also seemed impressed that Edwards had run a positive campaign. Most importantly however, it seemed that Edwards was able to strike a chord.

He said: "This is the America that still believes the son of a mill worker can beat the son of a president for the White House."

- INDEPENDENT