A train carrying presidential candidate John Kerry will roll through Lawrence late tonight after a day of campaigning in Kansas City.

Whether Kerry stops here — even for a few minutes — is an open question.

Local Democrats were preparing Thursday for a short stop by the Kerry campaign, and a state party official said he had been told Kerry’s train would “pause” in Lawrence on its way to Colorado. But a Kerry campaign spokeswoman said Thursday she knew of no plans for the train to do anything other than speed through the city.

“Not that I know of,” Candace McAdams said, when asked if the campaign would stop in Lawrence.

If Kerry’s train ride through Missouri is any indication, however, the campaign might make a stop in the city — provided there is a big enough crowd. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported this week that campaign aides said the train would slow down or stop in towns if crowds were large enough to warrant it.

And Lawrence Police were preparing for Kerry’s arrival.

“Obviously we can’t give any details out about what exactly we will be doing,” Sgt. Dan Ward said Thursday, “but we have been in contact with the Secret Service and we’re working with them.”

Douglas County Democratic Chairwoman Marilyn Greathouse kicked off a frenzy Thursday when she sent an e-mail — the entire message in capital letters — to roughly 200 supporters, announcing the Kerry visit.

“They will stop just long enough to speak to the crowd from the train,” she wrote.

Mark Simpson, executive director of the Kansas Democratic Party, said Kerry campaign officials had told him to expect a “pause” in Lawrence.

“They’re not going to get off the train; they’re going to go really slowly through,” Simpson said. “They believe that will take between five and eight minutes. I think Kerry and (vice presidential candidate John) Edwards will come out on the back of the train and say a quick hello.”

Lawrence hasn’t often played host to presidential hopefuls.

In 1968, presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy gave a speech in front of 19,000 people at Kansas University’s Allen Fieldhouse. The visit took place just days after Kennedy announced his candidacy.

Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson were the only sitting presidents to visit the city, each giving brief speeches from the back of a train. John F. Kennedy and George H.W. Bush came to Lawrence before each became president. And Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton each visited after their terms were over.

Local Democrats gathered Thursday night to figure out how to raise a crowd of presidential proportions for the Massachusetts senator.

“It depends on how we can get the word out and let people know,” Greathouse told the Journal-World. “I would think it will be a fairly decent crowd, even though it’s going to be pretty late.”

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