Hart Cuts Irish Holiday Short, Drops From Sight

Gary Hart cut short his Irish fishing holiday by one week today after his former campaign manager said he was likely to re-enter the U.S. presidential race, but there were conflicting reports on where Hart had gone.

Some reports said the former Colorado senator had flown from Knock Airport in western Ireland to Britain, while the landlady of his fishing cottage said he had told her he would fly from Shannon Airport to New York.

Hart’s former campaign manager, William Dixon, said in a radio interview in Madison, Wis., Thursday that friends and family were urging Hart to renew his bid for the Democratic nomination.

“I think he’s likely to get back in the presidential race in the next 30 to 60 days,” Dixon said.

But another aide, Bill Shore, said Hart told him in a transatlantic telephone conversation late Thursday night that he was “very comfortable with my decision to withdraw.”

Hart was quoted today by the state-controlled Irish radio network as saying, “I will not confirm or deny the claim.”

Hart withdrew his candidacy on May 8, less than a month after his campaign officially began, amid reports he was involved with actress-model Donna Rice of Miami.

Hart had been in Ireland for three weeks, most recently in Oughterrard in the picturesque Connemara region of western Ireland where he was staying with his son, John.

Mary Clancy, landlady of the cottage they used, said John left with the former senator this morning after reports of Dixon’s comments reached Ireland.

“His peace and quiet was just shattered,” Clancy told Associated Press Radio in a telephone interview. “He thought he was going to be bombarded with reporters and TV cameras.”

No Flight Booked

She said Hart had not booked a flight when he left her cottage, but said he was going to Shannon Airport and returning to the United States.

Reporters did not see him pass through Shannon Airport, however, nor was he seen at Luton Airport outside London.

Bill Shore, a top aide to Hart for several years, today quoted his former boss as saying, “I’m very comfortable with my decision” to withdraw.

Shore, in a telephone interview from Denver, said he telephoned Hart in Ireland about midnight after reports started circulating that a renewed candidacy was in the offing.

“He just said: ‘Oh, no, no, no. You should be very unambiguous with people who ask,’ ” Shore quoted Hart as saying.