A major effort to draft Al Gore into the 2008 presidential race will soon launch from Everett. It's an all-volunteer effort, but close Gore advisors are involved as well as a leading Democratic PR firm. Dylan Malone, chairman of "The People, Not The Powerful '08," which runs the draft Gore Web site told me:

"Until now we've been almost completely flying below the media radar. We wanted to get our organization in place first to take full advantage of the interest press coverage generates. We're turning that corner now, and when the new site goes live we've an ambitious earned media campaign planned for the spring."

Malone met Gore during the 2000 campaign. Malone and his wife, Christine, then had a 6-month old son, Ian, who had been born with brain damage. He couldn't swallow and needed constant medical attention. But the family's insurance company refused to pay for a nurse to help, saying the family could take care of Ian.

Gore took on the family's cause and the insurance company relented and agreed to pay for the care. The Malones credited Gore with saving Ian's life. They spoke at the Democratic National Convention that year and were featured in a Gore campaign commercial.

Ian died in 2004 when he was 4 ½ years old. Dylan Malone said Gore was the first person to call him that day. And they have continued to stay in touch.

"He and Tipper have always been there for us, and it's been an honor to call them friends."

The Politico reported yesterday on Gore's Academy Award win, which raised questions about whether a presidential campaign could follow for Gore:

No draft movement is being authorized or encouraged, and there are no internal discussions of a campaign, the friends insist. But they say he has deliberately not closed the door. It just doesn't feel right to him and he's only 58.

Malone hasn't talked to Gore about the draft effort, and says it has to be independent from the would-be candidate. But the Draft Gore movement is not just a thankful Everett couple. Malone's involvement in the 2000 campaign connected him with Gore aides and supporters around the country. (Malone was one of the people Gore called in 2002 when he announced he would not run for president in 2004.) Malone said by e-mail:

"I often telephone the Gore 'inner circle' people from his days at the White House or the 2000 campaign when I'm stumped on a tough decision, or just want to brainstorm on a topic. Overwhelmingly these folks are of the opinion that he's sincere in his public sentiments about '08, but a thriving draft effort coupled with these flawed front-runner candidates could potentially bring him into the race in late summer or early fall."

The campaign is also working with CivicActions.com, a prominent Berkeley-based firm, that is working on a new Web site. When that launches this spring, Malone says it'll be clear that this is a serious effort to get Gore into the race.

"We're deploying a completely new Web site to enable true distributed campaigning — beyond anything that has been done before on the Web by a grassroots organization. Because a draft campaign does not have the resources to open physical offices in the early primary states, we're incorporating most of the functions of a traditional campaign directly into the site. Gore supporters in key states will soon be able to phone bank, print walking lists, etc. directly from the Web site."

To test whether Democrats were interested in creating Gore committees, the draft Gore campaign went to MeetUp.com, which had proved to be a successful organizing tool for Howard Dean in 2004. As of today there are 100 Gore groups, 48 for Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and 31 for New York Sen. Hillary Clinton. Malone says:

"The next generation AlGore.org site includes sophisticated social networking tools that go beyond Meetup.com and will allow us to coordinate thousands of local groups nationwide."

The campaign's "near term projects exploit Al Gore's schedule throughout the spring," Malone said. The first part of that was Sunday night's Academy Awards. Next month Gore will be the sole witness before House and Senate committees holding climate change hearings. In May he releases his new book, "The Assault on Reason," and launches a nationwide book tour. In July, Gore has helped organize Live Earth, 24 hours of concerts on seven continents designed to highlight the dangers of global warming.

Said Malone:

"I suspect you'll be seeing more of Al Gore, and the Draft Gore movement, than many of the official candidates this summer."