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Outgoing Public Health Commissioner David Mulligan is
being touted by the state's congressional delegation for
the job of national AIDS "czar."

Mulligan, 59, who has announced his intention to step
down as the state's top public health official in September
to take a teaching post at Stonehill College in North
Easton, said he would consider the national AIDS post if
offered the job by President Clinton. "It would be an
honor," he said. "I'm open to looking at the possibility."

Sources said Mulligan is one of four people being
considered by Clinton to succeed Patsy Fleming as AIDS
czar. She has said she intends to step down by June.

However, Mulligan said he has not been contacted by
anyone in the Clinton administration about the job.

Mulligan, who was appointed to the Massachusetts job in
1989 by then Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, said he was called by
some groups in Washington and asked if he would be
interested in the czar's position.

"They asked me if they could submit my name and they
have done so," he said.

His candidacy is also being pushed by Sen. John F. Kerry
(DMass.) and nine Massachusetts congressmen.

A March 19 letter sent to Clinton by Kerry and Reps.
William Delahunt (DQuincy), Joseph P. Kennedy II
(DBrighton), Edward J. Markey (DMalden), James McGovern
(DWorcester), Martin T. Meehan (DLowell), Joseph Moakley
(DS. Boston), Richard E. Neal (DSpringfield), John W.
Olver (DAmherst) and John Tierney (DSalem) urged the
president to name Mulligan to head the White House Office
of National AIDS Policy.

The letter says Mulligan has earned "a national
reputation for his efforts to create innovative local and
regional strategies addressing the AIDS epidemic . . . "

Mulligan has won high praise from AIDS activists in
Massachusetts for supporting AIDS programs, particularly
controversial ones such as needleexchange efforts.

Although Mulligan said he is interested in being
considered for the federal post, he said he would only take
it if he were to be assured that he would be allowed to
continue to push the agenda he has pushed in Massachusetts.

"All HIV transmission occurs by sex or needle sharing,"
he said. "We need to be able to talk openly about those
things."

Mulligan, a former missionary in Bolivia, has been with
the DPH since 1980, initially working in the field of
alcoholism and substance abuse. He said AIDS prevention
programs must target high risk groups and use all available
strategies, including needleexchange programs and frank
talk about sex to young people, to keep transmission down.

"We have to talk explicitly about sexual activity to
young people," he said. "We should encourage them to
abstain, but we must recognize that many will not."

AIDS activists have criticized the fouryearold Office
of AIDS Policy for being ineffective and without power.
Some have urged the AIDS czar be made a Cabinetlevel
position.

The office outlined a new AIDS strategy in December, but
activists derided it as being a rehashing of old ideas.

The plan did not, for example, endorse needleexchange
programs in which the government supplies addicts with
clean needles to reduce the spread of HIV infection.