ADAM NAGOURNEY is the national political reporter at the New York Times, a position he has held since the 2002 election. He joined The Times in 1996, where he was first assigned to cover the presidential campaign of Bob Dole. After that, he was transferred from Washington to New York, where he was named the metropolitan political reporter. Among the campaigns he covered was Hillary Rodham Clinton's election to the Senate and Michael Bloomberg's election as mayor. Nagourney was born in New York, and is a graduate of the State University of New York at Purchase. His first job was at the Gannett Westchester Newspapers, based in White Plains. He worked as the chain's Albany correspondent, before joining the New York Daily News in 1983, staying there through 1989. From there, he worked at USA Today, covering the presidential campaign of Bill Clinton and the first year of the Clinton White House. Nagourney is co-author with Dudley Clendinen of "Out for Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America," published by Simon & Schuster in 1999.