With the ballots of one national election barely counted, Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack formally kicked off the next one as he became the first candidate to form a 2008 presidential exploratory committee.

J. Scott Applewhite, Associated Press Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack: "I've never started a race that I've been expected to win, and I've never lost." Click photo for larger image.

The two-term Democratic governor, a Pittsburgh native, signaled his candidacy legally as his Shady Side Academy classmate, Douglas Campbell, filed the papers to form the committee with the Federal Elections Commission yesterday morning.

The public debut of his bid came with the launch of a Web site in which he speaks of his presidential ambitions while acknowledging his underdog status in a Democratic race against several unannounced but better known candidates.

"I've never started a race that I've been expected to win, and I've never lost," Mr. Vilsack says in a video on the new site.

Nearing the end of his second term, Mr. Vilsack was elected in 1998 as first Democrat to lead Iowa in more than three decades. He has cultivated a centrist image while emphasizing increased spending on health care, education and economic development. He chairs the Democratic Leadership Council, a group intent on steering Democratic policies to the moderate center of the political spectrum.

Mr. Vilsack's announcement came two days after Iowa Democrats rode the crest of the national political wave to their strongest position in a generation, capturing majorities in both chambers of the Legislature, while retaining the governor's mansion for Democrat Chet Culver, who will be Mr. Vilsack's successor.

"Americans sent a clear message on Tuesday," Mr. Vilsack said in a statement. "They want leaders who will take this country in a new direction. They want leaders who share their values, understand their needs and respect their intelligence. That's what I've done as governor of Iowa, and that's what I intend to do as President."

Mr. Vilsack's early march on the 2008 field still leaves him a long shot against the candidacies of a variety of better known, better funded Democrats. Leading that list is Sen. Hillary Clinton, the presumed front-runner and the champion fund-raiser among Senate candidates in Tuesday's election. Former Sen. John Edwards also is actively considering the race, along with Sen. John Kerry, who occupied the top of the ticket Mr. Edwards shared in 2004; Illinois Sen. Barack Obama; and Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware.

With the decision by former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner not to pursue the Democratic nomination, Bill Richardson of New Mexico is the only other governor prominently mentioned as a 2008 possibility.

Mr. Vilsack will ceremoniously announce the presidential bid on Nov. 30 in Mount Pleasant, his Iowa home. The next day he will travel to Pittsburgh as part of an inaugural trip that will include stops in the early primary states of New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.

But money is the real first test in any presidential race, and his need to launch a fund-raising drive prompted yesterday's FEC filing. The formation of the exploratory committee allows him to accept contributions for a presidential campaign. His potential rivals sitting in the Senate have somewhat more latitude as their exiting senatorial committees can legally transfer funds to presidential committees down the road.

Mr. Vilsack, an orphan adopted by a Squirrel Hill family shortly after birth, will return on his kick-off tour to a city where he was raised in what he describes as a "troubled but loving family."

His father, a real estate businessman, suffered financial reversals while his mother struggled with alcoholism. After Shady Side Academy, he went to Hamilton College in New York, where he met his wife, Christie.

Their marriage took him to her Iowa home where his political career evolved. He served as the mayor of Mount Pleasant before being elected to the state Senate and then as governor.

He maintains close Pittsburgh ties to friends such as Mr. Campbell, all of whom can count on getting fund-raising solicitations in the near future. Mr. Vilsack also retains a fondness for Mineo's pizza and a devotion to the Pirates and the Steelers.

His office in Terrace Hill, the Iowa governor's mansion, is cluttered with memorabilia commemorating Pittsburgh sports figures, including Willie Stargell, Roberto Clemente and the Super Bowl teams of the 1970s.

Another coincidental Pittsburgh tie emerged in the campaign staff that he named yesterday. His national campaign manager is Craig Varoga, a political consultant who grew up in Point Breeze, just blocks from the home where Mr. Vilsack was raised.

Today's political trivia: The last Pittsburgh native who ran for president? Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, an unsuccessful contender for the GOP nomination in 2000.