I was part of the press pack trailing Ted Kennedy a number of times, and I'm not sure I've seen another politician with such celebrity presence. I understand Ronald Reagan had it too, but he was president and deep inside the bubble the few times I covered him.

I claim no special insights into Kennedy, who was an out-of-town pol on a California campaign swing whenever I encountered him, but he's today's headline, and a couple of anecdotes stand out in my mind.

In 1986, my first year as full-time political correspondent, Kennedy came to California to stump for Alan Cranston, a fellow liberal who was at peril of losing his Senate seat to a moderate Silicon Valley congressman named Ed Zschau after running poorly in a presidential bid two years earlier.

Following an early morning appearance in Los Angeles, we caught a commercial flight to Oakland for another rally. Practically every head turned and there was an audible buzz, "Hey, wasn't that Ted Kennedy?" as he headed down the aisle of the crowded PSA jet, trailed by a couple aides and about a dozen reporters.

During the flight, we pinned Kennedy near the restrooms in the rear of the plane for a short press conference. Someone asked him about a comment by political consultant Bob Shrum that's become my favorite description of California elections: "A campaign rally in California is three people sitting around a TV set."

Shrum is a former Kennedy staffer, and when the question came, Kennedy guffawed and shouted across the plane in his Boston brogue, "Can you believe it? These guys want me to comment on my press secretary."

The last time I saw Kennedy was at Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles nine years ago, when he sang "Guadalajara" with a Mariachi band at a closing-day rally for California delegates who were beginning to seem more enthusiastic about Green party nominee Ralph Nader than fellow Democrat Al Gore, perhaps foreshadowing the outcome of the election.

That, coincidentally, was the last news article I wrote for this newspaper before moving full-time to the night city desk, where I worked for eight years before becoming an editorial writer last spring.

- Jim Sweeney