Ex-Aide Still Has Input to Dukakis Staff

Gov. Michael S. Dukakis says a top campaign aide who resigned last week over the distribution of a videotape that undermined Delaware Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. continues to meet with campaign staffers but is no longer on the payroll.

Former political director Paul Tully is meeting with staffers to ensure “we have the information that he has within him which his successor will have to have,” Dukakis said Tuesday. “ . . . That, I think, everybody can understand. But beyond that there will be no relationship.”

The Democratic presidential candidate was responding to a New York Daily News column quoting Tully as saying he helped plan some of the strategy for a candidates’ debate Monday night in Miami.

The debate occurred five days after campaign manager John Sasso and Tully resigned. Sasso admitted providing the video that helped wreck Biden’s White House bid, and Tully admitted he lied in denying any involvement by the campaign.

Dukakis campaign spokeswoman Amy DeHart said Tully helped plan debate strategy before his resignation. “We don’t wait for the last minute on something like that,” she said.