F. THOMPSON: Another New Campaing Manager

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Fred Thompson on Wednesday tapped the man he credits with saving his 1994 Senate campaign to take over his likely presidential bid.

Bill Lacy, a former strategist for Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and Republican National Committee, will run day-to-day operations of Thompson's committee to "test the waters" for a presidential run.

"He turned around my campaign for Senate in 1994 and, as I move toward a decision on whether to run for president, I am confident he will take our operations to the next level," Thompson, the former Tennessee senator and "Law & Order" actor, said in a statement.

"I'm here for the long haul," Lacy said in an interview from the committee's headquarters in a Virginia suburb. He said he has taken a leave of absence from his current post as the director of the Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kan.

Thompson is expected to officially enter the race Labor Day week, and is showing strongly in national polls and surveys in several early primary states. But a certain measure of turmoil has hit his preliminary campaign this summer.

The all-but-declared candidate collected about $1.5 million less than the $5 million backers had hoped to bring in during June, his first fundraising month. In July, Thompson sidelined his campaign-manager-in-waiting, Tom Collamore, and watched a few other aides follow him out the door amid consternation inside the operation about the active role of Thompson's wife, Jeri.

At the time, aides said former senator and energy secretary Spencer Abraham and a Florida GOP strategist, Randy Enwright, would take over the unofficial campaign. But that turned out to be a temporary solution as the Thompsons sought a replacement for Collamore, who still is advising Thompson.

Lacy's relationship with Thompson dates to fall of 1993, when Thompson was enmeshed in a sluggish campaign in a special election to fill the remainder of Al Gore's Senate term. Gore had resigned to become vice president.

Early on, Lacy served as Thompson's strategist and management consultant when Thompson, trailing by 20 points in the polls, turned to him to move to Nashville and take over full-time management of the campaign. Thompson ended up coming from behind to win the election, and went on to serve eight years in the Senate.

Lacy said he sees parallels between this presidential race and the Senate bid, including the likely candidate starting out having raised little money and a staff shake-up.

"It was a very similar situation in 1994. Actually, it was a much worse situation in 1994," Lacy said.

In July, Lacy wrote an op-ed published in the Knoxville News Sentinel in which he argued that Thompson's performance in that race shows he can be a strong White House candidate.

"Fred isn't Superman. His style has some similarities to President Reagan, but he hasn't been around as long and proven himself as much," Lacy wrote. "But he has been tested: In the darkest hours of his political career, when the wheels were about to come off his first campaign, he figured out how to scoop them up, put them on a red truck and drive off into the sunset."

Lacy served as a Republican campaign operative in various roles in Washington for nearly 20 years beginning in 1977. A White House political director in the Reagan administration, Lacy was Dole's political strategist for 10 years, including during the Kansas senator's failed 1996 presidential run. Lacy resigned shortly after Dole lost the New Hampshire and Delaware primaries. Previously, Lacy had served in other White House campaigns.

He became director of the Dole Institute in 1994.