He seemed to observers to be an almost reluctant candidate, though, and a bit too much of a "mystic" for the Washington press corps.

As a reluctant candidate for President in 1796, Jefferson came within three votes of election.

Described by two men who hired him as a reluctant candidate for the job, he now seems anything but a reluctant manager.

Yet whether it was from arrogance or ambivalence, she often seemed a reluctant candidate.

He typically appears in election years to offer strategic advice to the reluctant candidate, Pogo.

Pogo was a reluctant "candidate" for President (although he never campaigned) in 1952 and 1956.

Goldwater was a reluctant candidate in the first place.

Today, even candidates reluctant to get into the muck say they feel compelled to respond in kind.

The party leaders are likely to encounter reluctant candidates for these posts, too.

Instead, the public must depend on whatever disclosures the press can wheedle from an often reluctant candidate.