Hart, in U.S., Won’t Discuss Reports of Comeback

NEW YORK —  Gary Hart returned Tuesday from a three-week vacation in Ireland, stopping at an airport here just long enough to refuse to comment on reports that he might reenter the presidential race.

“I’m not going to make a statement here today or anywhere else today,” Hart said as he was met at Kennedy International Airport by about 100 reporters and photographers.

Shielded by Guards

Hart, who was shielded by police officers and airport security guards, told the crowd: “After I get a chance to get together with my family and find out more about the events that have transpired in the last few days, I’ll have something to say, but I’m not going to make any other statement here today.”

The former Colorado senator, who quit the race for the Democratic presidential nomination on May 8 after the Miami Herald reported that he had spent part of a weekend with actress-model Donna Rice, then brushed past the reporters and onlookers and ignored further questions.

But, as he got into a car waiting about 20 yards away, he turned and called out over his shoulder: “I had a great vacation.”

Hart told a reporter from ABC News aboard the flight from Ireland that he was “astonished” by reports that he is reconsidering his candidacy and surprised by the amount of attention the reports received, adding: “I don’t know how it all got started.”

Hart was taken to a connecting flight, but it was unclear whether he was flying to Colorado or Washington.

He left a rented cottage in the fishing village of Oughterard on Friday to avoid reporters after his former campaign manager, Bill Dixon, said it was “likely” that the former senator would rejoin the presidential race.

Another former Hart adviser, Bill Shore, told the Des Moines Register that he had talked with Hart on the telephone last week and that Hart had been unequivocal about not returning to the race. But, in an interview with the Register published Monday, Dixon stuck by his earlier statement.

Hart had been considered the Democratic front-runner before the Rice incident.

“Obviously, he would first have to make a statement about his intolerable behavior,” Dixon said. Even so, he said, Hart would be “torn apart” by the media if he stepped back in.

Hart believes he can make a contribution to the campaign and feels an obligation to do so, Dixon said. If Hart should reenter the race, Dixon suggested, it would be more of a crusade on issues rather than a serious attempt to win the nomination.