True believers refuse to give up on Gore run

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State movements to draft Al Gore for a presidential bid are strengthening, with his fans from Iowa to California pledging not to give up and saying they are undeterred by the former vice president's insistence that he won't run.

As speculation mounts about whether he will win the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, supporters in California today will start collecting signatures to put his name on the Feb. 5 ballot, timed with a Gore speech in the Bay Area.

Reports out of Oslo suggest that the Democrat is a favorite to win the Nobel for his work on climate change, an accolade that will likely reignite calls for his candidacy.

California Draft Gore organizers think that time is running out for him to make a decision about 2008, so they timed the petition kickoff with his speech to personally send him a loud message. In case he ignores that one, some Gore believers have set it to song and will perform "Run, Al, Run" at an Iowa concert in his honor next month.

Concert organizer Peter Ryder said the goal is to show Mr. Gore that "there's a lot of people who have genuine interest and who would support your candidacy again."

Mr. Ryder, a retired telecommunications project director, said nothing will stop him from attending his Cedar Rapids caucus for Mr. Gore come January.

"All the other candidates are fine, but Al Gore is the one person who has international stature, the intelligence, rigor and experience," he said.

Politicians, former staffers and fundraisers say they are convinced that he won't run. Longtime supporters who a few months ago said they would wait for Mr. Gore's decision have moved on, picking a favorite candidate as the days on the electoral calendar before the first votes dwindle.

"I wish I could tell you that Al was running because I really want him to run, but I just don't think it's going to happen," said Warren Gooch, a Tennessee lawyer who was a major Gore fundraiser in 2000 but now supports John Edwards. "Obviously as you go longer into the fall, people who are still holding out hope he's going to get in the race will have to make a decision."

But the draft movements aren't taking no for an answer. Volunteers leading the movements — which are growing in such states as Missouri and Washington — say this is their first entry into politics and swear they have no fallback plan should Mr. Gore sit this one out.