‘I Don’t Want to Jinx It,’ Supporter Worries

Throngs of people spilled through this city’s darkened streets Tuesday night, unable to get past the barricades surrounding a stage set up in front of the public library for an election-night party for Sen. John F. Kerry. A biting November wind whipped at them and icy rain pricked their faces.

Despite the crush, thousands who showed up lingered outside the gates. They craned for glimpses of the massive television screens, strained to get updates from friends over cellphones and climbed trees to get a view of the plaza.

Inside the hotels around Copley Square, Kerry’s aides, Democratic Party leaders and donors huddled around television sets watching election returns.

Early exit polls showing the Massachusetts senator with a strong lead in crucial states had initially triggered exuberance among those assembled in Boston. But as the hour grew later and the numbers closed, the mood shifted to anxious anticipation.

“Part of me is nervous, but I think he’s going to pull it out,” said 25-year-old Peter Gamache, a student from Dunstable, Mass.

Hunched against the side of the Fairmont Copley Plaza, 19-year-old Samantha Mewhorter and three other freshmen from Northeastern University sat on the sidewalk, trying to make out the words echoing from the speakers through the din. “It’s frustrating, but we’re just hoping for the best,” she said.

McKenna Lowry, 18, said she was too nervous to contemplate a Kerry victory. “I don’t want to jinx it,” she said. “I don’t want another four years of Bush. It’s nerve-racking, it really is.”

A few hours later, singer Sheryl Crow tried to bolster the listless crowd in the plaza by playing “Soak Up the Sun.” “I think tomorrow morning we all get up with a positive attitude and try to get ourselves back together again,” she told supporters.

Earlier in the night, the mood was positively giddy. Glasses clinked at donor receptions and Kerry’s aides were buoyant. “Everything’s falling into place,” senior advisor Mike McCurry said as he dashed down an escalator at the Westin Copley Place.

Vice presidential candidate John Edwards and his staff spent the 2 1/2 -hour flight from Orlando to Boston in celebratory spirits, insulated from the changing numbers on the ground.

Aides walked down the aisle with glasses of wine and wide smiles, with one making an outright prediction of victory.

But as the night wore on, Democrats began adopting a more measured tone.

“I feel pretty good,” said Chris Heinz, one of Kerry’s stepsons, as he left a party at the Westin. “I’d rather be us than them.”

It was a night for good-luck charms. Kerry, who spent the year carting around a buckeye from a supporter in Ohio and a four-leaf clover from an Iowa backer, was careful to don his lucky tie Tuesday, a red one with white dots that he sported during all three presidential debates. He ate his traditional election day lunch at the Union Oyster House, a ritual he practiced with his father until the elder Kerry’s death four years ago.

The day was rife with sentiment. As his campaign plane made its last official trek from La Crosse, Wis., to Boston, Kerry gathered his staff members, calling them “the toughest, most loyal, hard-working, committed people I’ve ever had with me.” His words caused many of his exhausted aides to burst into tears. That, in turn, caused the candidate to tear up. They all embraced.

After voting at the state house, Kerry hugged his two daughters and gave them high-fives, then embraced his wife, nearly lifting her off the ground.

He called his two-year campaign “quite a journey.” “When you go state-to-state and people, so many thousands of them invest their hopes in you, people tell you their life stories, share their troubles, they share their dreams,” he said. “If you’re not moved by that, you’re missing something.”

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Times staff writer Michael Finnegan contributed to this report.