According to the New York Times, Rep. Joe Kennedy is eyeing Ed Markey’s Senate seat. A recent mystery poll has been confirmed to have been paid for by the Kennedy team and shows Joe handedly beating Markey for the seat.
The political reasons for the run seem obvious to me. Kennedy is hedging his bets in case the Warren seat does not become available after the presidential campaign, or in case that primary becomes too crowded (Maura Healey and Ayanna Pressley are also looking to run). He did not and apparently does not want to run against the popular Charlie Baker for the governorship. He wisely stayed out of the 2020 presidential primary where the Kennedy name may have gotten him some extra initial attention, but he’d probably be languishing in obscurity with the other House based candidates who ran.
Ayanna Pressley and Seth Moulton showed us that the old way of waiting your turn is giving way to the new way of skipping the line via primary challenges. Something a young Ed Markey was famously unafraid to do as a maverick state rep and young Turk member of Congress.
Like Pressley/Capuano, this race will be about generational change and not ideology. Unlike that race, both of these candidates are Irish Catholics with long political pedigrees. Markey, who first entered Congress forty four years ago and Kennedy who’s father, grandfather, and great uncle all served in Congress or the Senate. The latter three eventually running for President.
Massachusetts voters will have a clear choice. Reward a man who has been a tireless advocate for climate action and consumer protection with six more years or elevate this generations Kennedy to the Senate where his family produced a president and substantial legislation.
Again with the “generation change” meme. Your thread-starter is even more explicit this time: “this race will be about generational change and not ideology”. You are explicitly saying that this about young versus old, rather than policy. I hope that we can stipulate that Mr. Markey is NOT showing any signs of dementia or other age-related deficits.
I do not like the way we seem to be devolving into primary campaigns centered on young versus old, black versus white, female vs male, and similar “identity” themes.
Mr. Markey’s policy strengths are not limited to climate action and consumer protection. Mr. Markey has been a tireless proponent of our vision and priorities for decades.
I find family dynasties no more appealing than back rooms filled with cigar smoke. As you’ve stated the choice in your final paragraph, I hope that the primary doesn’t happen at all.
If Mr. Markey is to have a primary opponent, I want the race to be about issues — not age and not some alleged halo from a last name.
I also find it unsettling that Ms. Pressley is “looking to run”. She has barely found her way to the rest room in her current seat. All that talk about her “commitment” and how hard she’ll “fight” in her campaign against Mike Capuano — what happened to all that? I want Ms. Pressley to show us some ACCOMPLISHMENTS before she considers another run. If she should run and win, then what do we end up with in CD-7? A representative that I know and loved who was outstanding and effective will have been dumped like so much rubbish and replaced, after two years, with someone who is as yet a complete unknown. If she runs and loses, she has sent a very clear message about how she views her current role.
It’s all well and good to talk about “skipping the line”. In a field where actual competence matters, and where actual competence is acquired by actually doing actual work, “skipping the line” is just cheating whoever it is that wants a genuine expert at his or her craft. A master craftsman (or craftswoman) spends years as an apprentice before hanging out his or her shingle. A doctor serves a residency.
Ms. Pressley should not have run for her current position if she didn’t want to serve as representative for more than one term.
I am profoundly disturbed by discarding well-performing elected Democrats with impeccable policy positions in order to advance a “generational change” agenda — especially when the “new-comers” are attempting to bank on their membership in a one-time political dynasty.
I want our elected leaders to be chosen based on who is best able to represent the people of Massachusetts in their respective positions.
Well said, Tom.
It burns me no end that so-called holier than thou progressive purists insist on wasting our precious political capital /resources attacking our own rather than focus on our real enemies.
I am so done with these selfish, personal ambition-driven, suicidal circular firing squads.
I
“Purists”? Who are you talking about?
Not who. What. I’m talking about the thread-starter as an example of litmus test, vanity candidate, generational change identity purism that is corrosive to the party unity we will need to win back the Senate and the White House.
Where did I mention any of that? This is a summary and an analysis-I’m not endorsing anyone in this race.
Ayanna Pressley has already drawn far more press and attention to the real needs of communities of color in her district compared to her predecessor. She is the lead fighter against ICE in Congress, she is working with the Squad, she has gotten under the presidents skin. Capuano never sponsored anything. He voted the right way and was a nice backbencher, but the times call for real leaders who will make waves and accomplish something. There is also something to be said about skipping the line when our states politics have been dominated by older white men for decades.
There is something to be said about having a minority represent a minority majority district and having a Bostonian represent a district that is 70% Boston. Capuano lost his hometown too-which shows he was clearly our of touch with the changing demographics of the district, as Tim Toomey was before him.
He lost his primary by a wide margin, and I for one want more black women to rise to prominence in our party instead of fewer. You really have an continual axe to grind against Harris and Pressley, women of color who happen to challenge older white men on their privilege.
By the way, unless you mean the word “pedigree” literally — invoking the ancient canard that blood inheritance is the ultimate measure of something (who knows what) — then there is a WORLD of difference between forty four years of service and enjoying the benefits of being born into the Kennedy line of succession.
Joe Kennedy was born in 1980 and first entered Congress in 2013 after winning the 2012. He did, by the way, “wait his turn” — he ran for the seat occupied by Barney Frank after Mr. Frank retired. So Mr. Kennedy offers eight years (at the time of the 2020 election) in comparison to Mr. Markey’s forty four.
I think it is incorrect to assert that Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Markey have similar political pedigrees. They do not. Forty four years is a “long political pedigree”. Being born a Kennedy and serving eight years in Congress is not.
By the way, aside from his name, what distinguishes Joe Kennedy as a prospective Senator? What will he do better than Ed Markey has done?
What the heck is happening in this party? It seems overnight we’ve gone from afraid to primary even the most DINO of elected officials to everyone wants to take down perfectly good Dems with solid records! Some people, like Moulton in particular IMO, are too ambitious for their own good.
When my children were young (as in toddlers) I taught them to finish what was on their plate before taking more from the serving platters.
I find it particularly offensive for Ms. Pressley to even contemplate entering a Senate primary in 2020, literally one term after winning her seat from an effective, well-respected, and well-loved incumbent in 2018. The right response to that rumor, whenever it comes up, is for Ms. Pressley to say loud and clear something along the lines of: “I am proud to serve as the Representative in Congress for CD-7. My work here is not nearly done. I am not a candidate for any other office in 2020.”
I find it more offensive you continually disparage her on this blog despite the fact that she resoundingly won a landslide victory against an incumbent who could not even carry his home city. For decades the GOP elevated young and ambitious conservative leaders while clearing out the centrist deadwood in their party, the Democrats have finally figured that out. It’s unfortunate so many on this blog find representative democracy and diverse representation so offensive.
Markey is a largely invisible Senator who barely resides or spends time in Massachusetts. I met Joe Kennedy at a Yes on 3 rally and he was personable, warm, and eager to engage. I got no sense of the entitlement or egoism I got the time my dad and I met his old man at a parade. He seems to take after his mother’s side of the family more.
I bumped into Markey who was walking in total obscurity through DTC after a rally for the nurses and he did not want to talk to me at all. The other time I met him was in 2004 and he gave me a long and winding answer on an abortion’s rights question, but at least took the time to talk to a teenager back then. I’m a constituent now and he literally brushed me aside.
Granted, he’s the Senate sponsor of the Green New Deal, he is an AOC ally, and has a more progressive record than Kennedy. He has learned from his vanquished colleague Capuano that the way to win is to work with the youth of the party instead now of attack them as out of touch purists. So I think this will be a good primary for the party, and I’m glad to have a choice for a change.
Kennedy has every right to run for whatever he likes..
He is not in Markey’s league in any sense of the word. So bring it on, I guess—Kennedy’s hair, teeth, and name versus the most prescient national voice on energy, climate, and telecoms.
Oh, for sure he has every right to run. He also has every right to stand on a street corner and tell the world he’s an idiot. He certainly isn’t in Mr. Markey’s league.
I’m bothered more by the support for such a run than the run itself. I’m particularly bothered by the premise that he should replace Mr. Markey because he’s younger and because his last name is spelled the way it is.
I am repelled by the notion that there is some “Kennedy mystique” that will somehow magically bring about another “Camelot”. It is just as mistaken as the premise that we should put another Bush into public office based on “pedigree”.
Our elected officials are not show dogs.
I misread the reference to Ms. Pressley in the second paragraph. I see now that it is the race to fill Elizabeth Warren’s seat, if it becomes vacant, that Ms. Pressley is contemplating. That is much less upsetting to me — somebody has to fill the seat.
At the moment, I prefer Maura Healey over Ms. Pressley in that race.
I still want to see Ms. Pressley notch some legislative wins before I’m ready to support her in any higher office.
No House Democrat will notch any legislative wins so long as Donald Trump is in office. What she and Joe Kennedy are both doing is using oversight and investigative powers to stall the ICE raids that are actively happening in her district and in communities of color throughout the state. I applaud them both for that, and will note that Ed Markey has been equally active in that fight as well.