Tsongas, in a Surprise Move, Halts Campaign : Politics: The ex-senator from Massachusetts says he ran out of money and momentum. Clinton takes a commanding position.

A year after launching a longshot bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, Paul E. Tsongas on Thursday called a halt to a once-promising campaign that ran out of momentum and money.

Tsongas’ surprise announcement established Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton as the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee fewer than six weeks after the first votes were cast in the race.

Clinton’s only remaining rival is former California Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. Brown’s insurgent candidacy against the political Establishment could prove troublesome to Clinton, but it is given virtually no chance of capturing the nomination.

Democratic consultant Ann Lewis, echoing a commonly expressed sentiment among political analysts as word spread of Tsongas’ decision, said of Clinton: “He is, barring something totally new and unexpected, the nominee.”

Clinton and Brown each had kind words for their former foe. Clinton praised Tsongas for stressing economic growth in his campaign, calling that message “something the Democrats have not been identified with in a very long time.” Brown said Tsongas was “a real gentleman” and “an authentic person.”

Tsongas’ decision cut short a storybook campaign for the 51-year-old son of Greek immigrants who battled back from cancer in the late 1980s and chalked up surprising victories in several primaries and caucuses. He emerged from the pack of Democratic candidates by winning New Hampshire’s Feb. 18 primary.

But Tsongas failed to win a single major state and, following a string of devastating losses in Southern and Midwestern primaries earlier this month, he decided he could not effectively compete in the New York primary on April 7.

“It was clear that we did not have the resources necessary to fight the media war in New York,” Tsongas said in an emotional farewell to a throng of supporters in Boston’s Parker House hotel. “I would have been defined by others and would have been unable to defend myself.”

Bowing out with the grace and occasional wit that marked much of his campaign, Tsongas said he was departing hopeful that his pro-business message will catch on among fellow Democrats and content that the personal mission he embarked on following his cancer recovery was accomplished.

“I feel deeply fulfilled,” he said, as his wife and family stood behind him wiping tears from their eyes. “The obligation of my survival has been met.”

Democratic National Chairman Ronald H. Brown said of Tsongas: “He leaves this race true to form--with class and dignity. He brought a substantive tone to this campaign; his impact will remain.”

Stephen Hess, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, called Tsongas a “terribly interesting candidate.” He noted that the former Massachusetts senator was the only Democrat with “the guts” to declare his candidacy when--in the immediate wake of the Persian Gulf War--Bush was at the height of his popularity.

Tsongas liked to note on the campaign trail that he entered the fray when Bush had a “90% approval rating.”

Thursday’s announcement, Hess said, “showed once again that he is a very non-traditional politician. The typical and political thing to do would have been to stay in having gone this far, assuming that you’d have something to bargain with at the convention. Once again, he surprised us.”

Tsongas is the fourth Democrat to drop out of the presidential race. The others were Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin and Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey.

“The party is now going to try to coalesce around Clinton as quickly as possible,” said Democratic consultant Victor Kamber.

Tsongas announced that he was “suspending” his candidacy, a maneuver that will permit the estimated 430 delegates he has won to attend the Democratic convention in July and could make his campaign eligible for additional federal matching funds. But he said he had no plans to jump back in the race. He also declined to respond to questions about whether he was interested in becoming the Democratic nominee’s running mate.

In his campaign, Tsongas sought to distance himself from the traditional Democratic economic philosophy that promoted government spending. Instead, he preached themes of economic development and fiscal responsibility.

“Paul Tsongas is clearly the first Democrat who began talking this way about pro-business, and he clearly is not the last,” said Lewis, a Boston-based Democratic consultant.

In his Thursday announcement, Tsongas said he believed he had accomplished more during his yearlong candidacy than in his 16 years as a local politician, a congressman and a senator.

“They’ve actually been astonished at what we’ve done,” Tsongas said of Democratic Party leaders. “I think they must go home tonight and wonder: How did he do it?”

Adding a cautionary note, he warned that “unless changed,” the Democratic orthodoxy he campaigned against “will lead to defeat in November.”

Tsongas had given no indication that he was contemplating an end to his candidacy. On Wednesday, he said he was in the race to stay and wanted to “be heard” in the June 2 California primary. As recently as Monday, he said he would be willing to go into debt to continue his campaign.

Had Tsongas remained in the race, he would have needed an estimated $300,000 to $500,000 to run an adequate television campaign in New York.

Despite insisting during the last few days that he was still receiving substantial contributions, his campaign committee was facing mounting debts of between $500,000 and $1 million, the newspaper in his hometown of Lowell, Mass., reported Thursday.

In analyzing his campaign’s failure, Tsongas pointed to its beginning days.

“This campaign was lost in 1991 because of the lack of resources,” he said. “It was almost rescued in 1992 by the message. . . . If I thought that the resources were there to take this into the major media states, I would have done it.”

“We didn’t have an organization,” said Tsongas consultant Edward F. Jesser. “It was a roll of the dice. It came up 7 and 11 for a while, but then snake eyes rolled in on us--Illinois and Michigan.”

It was Tuesday’s stinging defeats in those two Midwestern primaries that led Tsongas to reassess his candidacy, aides said. He finished a distant second to Clinton in Illinois and behind both Clinton and Brown in Michigan.

Tsongas first discussed abandoning the race on Wednesday at his home in Lowell, with two of the people closest to him, his wife, Niki, and longtime friend Dennis Kanin, his campaign manager. The decision was made late Wednesday, the aides said.

“I felt lousy (Wednesday night) to tell you the truth,” Tsongas said. “And it was very emotional to tell all these people about my decision.”

He shared his decision with about 75 staffers and volunteers in a private meeting in Boston on Thursday morning.

Typical of his self-deprecating humor, Tsongas said Thursday that part of the reason he felt “a great sense of relief” in halting his candidacy “is that half of the young men in my campaign have fallen in love with my wife. I find that a great threat. I’m glad to get rid of them.”

Along with his recent string of primary defeats, personal reasons may have been a factor in Tsongas’ decision, according to some aides.

Tsongas, whose idea of an entertaining evening is playing charades with the family and getting to sleep by 10 p.m., had difficulty coping with the rigors of the campaign trail.

“You don’t sleep very well,” he told a group of senior citizens last week in Chicago. “Your mind is racing.”

Signs of fatigue became more visible recently. Speaking to unemployed workers in Flint, Mich., last weekend, Tsongas started one answer by saying, “You know, I have four daughters. . . . “ Then he quickly corrected himself. He has only three.

On Tuesday, in between late-night television interviews in a hotel in Hartford, Conn., Tsongas slumped in a sofa chair and complained that the next day’s schedule would only allow him one hour of free time during the day. “That won’t do,” he told one aide. “I’m wiped out.”

Tsongas campaign volunteer Mark Bisnow said: “He tires easily in my observation. Maybe he just had it. . . . He is no Bill Clinton in the energy department, and that takes its toll.”

Times staff writers Edwin Chen and Thomas B. Rosenstiel contributed to this story.