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Last Kennedy in Congress announces end of an era

By Andrew Slade, Gavel Media Team, on February 14, 2010 2:58 AM

By Andrew Slade, News Editor -

When John F. Kennedy won his seat in Congress in 1947, few Americans gave thought to the possibility that the U.S. Representative who Mass. voters elected that year would go on to become one of this nation’s most admired presidents, serving as the forerunner for his younger relatives to establish the longest lasting dynasty in the history of American politics. With the announcement of Representative Patrick Kennedy’s retirement from the House of Representatives this year, the “reign” of the Kennedy family seems to have reached its end.

Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) was elected to the Rhode Island House of Representatives in 1988 at the age of 21, making him the youngest member of the Kennedy clan to hold public office. Elected to represent the State’s 1st congressional district in 1995, Kennedy, like his father, was subjected to public bouts with alcoholism. Further, the son of the late Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and nephew of President John Kennedy was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and is known to have battled depression.

According to reports from The New York Times, Patrick and father Ted spent time discussing the former’s future in politics shortly before the latter’s death of brain cancer. They came to the conclusion that of the numerous famed members of their family, Ted’s late sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, left the greatest legacy of any of them as the founder of the Special Olympics. As one of the few among her siblings to stay out of politics, Eunice fought for the rights of the disabled: a cause on which Patrick Kennedy focused during his time in Congress.

In an interview on Friday, Kennedy stated that a lot of people get out of politics to spend time with their families.

“In a sense, when I got into politics, I was getting closer to my family,” he explained.

Many suspect that the 42-year old Kennedy’s departure from Capitol Hill was to some degree sparked by the death of his father, whose seat as a representative of Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate was clinched by Republican Scott Brown just weeks ago. For Patrick, the electoral outcome that followed his father’s death was “a joke.”

Although his exit from Congress is a blow to the cause of advocacy for the mentally ill, Kennedy has stated that he plans to continue his work in support of the cause in the private sector. “We are losing the biggest advocate we have for mental health in Congress. There’s no question about that,” said Dr. Patricia Recupero, president and chief executive of Rhode Island’s Butler Hospital. Recupero went on to explain that she is encouraged by Kennedy’s plans to continue to pursue the cause so closely tied to his personal life.

Republicans, however, are looking at Kennedy’s retirement —coupled with Scott Brown’s victory— as an opportunity to make headway in the markedly liberal congressional districts of New England in this fall’s midterm elections. “There’s an anti-incumbent fever, and that helps Republicans,” stated Republican Party consultant Ron Kauffman in response to Kennedy’s announcement.

The GOP has specifically targeted Representatives Niki Tsongas and William Delahunt, both Massachusetts Democrats, in the hope of picking up seats in the State’s delegation to the U.S. House, presently comprised entirely of Democrats.

As of this weekend, there are three announced candidates for Patrick Kennedy’s seat: Providence’s Democratic Mayor David Cicilline, Rhode Island’s Democratic Party Chairman William Lynch and Republican State Representative John Loughlin II. University of Rhode Island political science professor Maureen Moakley has suggested that while previous polls indicated a challenge for Kennedy from Loughlin, it seems unlikely that a Republican will win Rhode Island’s 1st district, given the shared appeal of Cicilline and Lynch in the district’s urban centers.