Martha Coakley, endorsed by Bill Clinton who did robocalls on her behalf, won the Democratic Senate primary yesterday in Massachusetts by pulling 47% of the vote. Michael Capuano had 28%, Alan Khazei (said to be the Kennedy's choice) had 13%, and Stephen Pagliuca 12%.
This follows upon the senatorial appointment, earlier this year, in the State of New York, which went to Clinton-supporter Kirstin Gillibrand instead of Caroline Kennedy, which, in turn, follows upon Hillary's landslide win in the Massachusetts primary last year.
You know, if they would just have a bigger family they could be the Kennedy's of the twenty first century.
Posted by: A Facebook User | December 09, 2009 at 05:18 PM
The kind of family structure where Mom has baby after baby while Dad goes off doing his thing (cf. the Buckleys on the other side of the political spectrum)is hard to find these days, unless you're a Quiverfull family or something. Political dynasties won't go away but they'll be smaller, no bad thing necessarily.
I rather enjoyed that Massachusetts primary. Teddy and the other state honchos declared for Obama and Massachusetts voters, especially women, ignored them completely. You could see then that the Kennedy influence in the state wasn't what it was.
Coakley appears to have deliberately distanced herself from the Kennedy circle. I don't know much about her but I liked the way she stood up for abortion rights in the health care bill.
Posted by: Hypatia | December 09, 2009 at 06:32 PM
From my contacts in the Bay State, I'd say that the name "Kennedy" is still gold there, but the people obviously don't fall into line behind them in political campaigns.
Posted by: John Petty | December 10, 2009 at 09:53 AM