There are other issues besides climate that matter to me. Issues such as trans rights, immigration rights, voting rights, gun control, and workers rights where Kennedy has been more vocal and out front than Ed Markey has been which is why he is gaining support from those parts of the party. There is a real risk for Markey-who is already down by double digits-to run as a single issue climate activist.
Need I remind you the state as a whole is not particularly ready to put its money where it’s mouth is on climate . It also re-elected Baker twice. As you point out communities on the business end of climate change like Weymouth and Winthrop routinely elect and re-elect short sighted leaders on climate.
Kennedy co-sponsored the Green New Deal and scores a point better in the League of Conservation Voters rating. He gets a 95% and Markey gets a 94%. There will be a lot of voters outside the progressive activist bubble where this outrage comes across as hyperbolic and misplaced, especially when the real outrage is the White House.
This movement unfortunately leans lily white. It’s laudable the kids from Brookline, Arlington, and Cambridge got parental permission to cut school and protest, but my kids had to go to school and many have to work 8 hours in minimum wage jobs to support their families as soon as they get out. For a lot of people in this state, myself included, making the next rent check is a far more existential and immediate reality than climate change.
The alarmism is justified and we are running out of time. In the long scheme of things it is working class communities and communities of color, not to mention developing nations like the Philippines, that will bare the brunt of this challenge.
What is needed is a way to connect those threads together and communicate them to multiple stakeholders. Kennedy did that during his state of the union response, his speech endorsing Warren, and on many different platforms where he’s shared his vision. Markey is like Bernie. He got there first and he’s been a consistent and cranky messenger, but it will take someone with broader communication skills and coalition building skills to get things done. Kennedy has that ability.
The Green New Deal as a concept is the best way to articulate that vision, and I am interested to hear how one of its co-sponsors stacks against one of its authors. It’s absolutely essential that we debate this topic-but it’s also important for Markey and his supporters not to get tunnel vision on this if they want to win an actual victory on climate legislation. Something Markey hasn’t been able to do since the 90’s.
My kids have relatives in Trump’s cages, people they love getting deported, we just lost a senior from last year who got shot over the weekend, so many have had housing insecurity and evictions, others face harassment on the job or just the indignity of flexible schedules. Many have chronic health care issues that only single payer can truly cover. I want their issues highlighted too.
Obviously the community I live and teach in is underwater if we do nothing, but I don’t think lecturing people suffering from other issues that this one is the one that matters most is the way to win or be effective on climate or on the seamless garment of social and economic justice we all seek. Kennedy in the tradition of his grandfather can appeal to today’s Wallace (Trump) and McCarthy (Bernie) voters alike. A Warren protege helping pass her agenda as President would be a nice feather in the cap. Markey has served honorably, but his best days are behind him. It’s time to pass the torch to a new generation of leadership.
I’m willing to stipulate that Mr. Kennedy has done more photo-ops than Mr. Markey on the following issues:
– trans rights
– immigration rights
– voting rights
– gun control
– workers rights
What legislation, policy changes, hearings, investigations, or other substantive matters has Mr. Kennedy accomplished on these issues?
Does Mr. Kennedy actually care about any of them?
Mr. Markey stepped back from his first Senate primary because he could be more effective as a Representative in advancing the nuclear freeze. That effort was, in fact, successful.
What analogous issue has Mr. Kennedy shown himself to be passionate about?
Come on Tom…I don’t recall Markey saying any such thing in 1984 when he withdrew from the race. Sure he may have used that as cover…but had he won the Senate seat he would have been positioned to have a huge voice in the Nuclear Freeze movement (that Sen. Kennedy had). But he didn’t take a chance to be that voice. Because John Kerry and Jim Shannon were to much of a threat to his chance at the Senate seat, so he played it safe. And playing it safe is the hall-mark of Ed’s career.
Of course the irony is that many activists say he takes gusty positions on the environment and other issues. But those positions do not fly in the face of MA progressives EVER. If he was such a profile in courage, can you tell me one unpopular position he has taken that would have put him at odds with his own based of supporters? I mean, after 43 years of service, there must be some issues positions he took that are opposed by progressives?
Choice until that same Senate race, busing, NAFTA, and the Iraq War vote.
You’ve always had too much of a generational outlook for my tastes and seem to be playing identity politics on behalf of those whose identity you don’t share. For me there are three reasons to primary an incumbent: DINO, corruption, ignoring the state – Ed Markey meets none of these criteria.
Kennedy, Markey, and I are all Irish Catholics so I do not see how identity has anything to do with it. I think class matters more in general, and think it’s a clear divide in this race. Sure it’s the son of the milkman versus the son/grandson/grandnephew of very important national political figures.
Yet Joe speaks Spanish, he has been to El Salvador and Guatemala and can speak to the issues those refugees are facing. He’s seen the cages. He was at the trans rights rallies I attended where Markey was not present. He’s been at anti-ICE protests. He’s been endorsed by the IBEW and other union endorsements are on the way. The Kennedys are some of the few figures still capable of crossing over the blue collar/white collar divide in our party as well as make standing up for immigrants and minorities part of the liberal commitment to fair wages and good jobs.
Climate change should be an intersectional issues but the leaders backing Markey and critiquing Kennedy are all from the well educated white progressive bubble around Boston. The one blind sided by Trump winning over blue collar Democrats in Western PA, the one dismissive of Scott Brown and Charlie Bakers chances.
This is the Jay Gonzalez vote personified, and it’s not big enough to make changes on Beacon Hill outside of Boston seats. It’s not big enough to win a statewide vote on the gas tax, and while I think either candidate could beat a Republican I think Joe Kennedy is likelier to convince people that aren’t in that bubble. Likelier to forge cross sectional and inter generational coalitions. Likelier to lead on these issues and make changes.
The role of the Senator has changed to being 100 national bully pulpits. The days of representing the state first or passing cloakroom legislation are over. I want another Warren style figure in that seat, and Kennedy can do it. Neither one of these guys is passing anything barring a unified government, one of those is likelier with Kennedy campaigning in swing districts and gaining a national profile. Markey just isn’t cut out for that shift in the role.
Speaking of refugees: Markey wants to increase the # to 95,000. (It should be more.)
https://commonwealthmagazine.org/immigration/markey-kennedy-participate-at-immigration-roundtable/
@class matters:
I categorically reject your hand-waving about this. Joe Kennedy III is a KENNEDY for crying out loud! Not a distant cousin, but the grandson of RFK. He is running on that name recognition, it is solely because of his pedigree that he has the arrogance to argue that his “time has come”. He apparently believes that America, or at least Massachusetts, owes him a senate seat because he wants it and he’s a Kennedy.
When you say “The Kennedys are some of the few figures still capable of …”, it sounds like you’re sounding the heralds of Camelot.
Class does matter. There are few families in America as ostentatiously wealthy as the Kennedy family, and there are few political families in America that have attracted as much hostility as the Kennedy family for the same reason. I am, frankly, glad that I haven’t had to hear Chappaquidick references in the past few years.
Anybody who thinks that class matters should, in my opinion, be running away from JKIII as quickly as possible — especially when he’s trying to unseat the son of a milkman.
@the one dismissive of Scott Brown and Charlie Baker:
You’re absolutely correct that I’m dismissive of that Scott Brown. Elizabeth Warren smacked him down soundly in her very first campaign. Mr. Brown won exactly ONE election for a national set — a special election in which we Democrats nominated arguably the worst candidate we’ve fielded in recent history (I agree that Ed King and John Silber were worse). Even Ed King had a better election record Martha Coakley. I’m only a little less dismissive of Charlie Baker. His election was no surprise, it was no shock to me and I think I said so here at the time.
The common thread that joins Scott Brown and Charlie Baker is the utterly incompetent candidate we nominated against each — not deep veins of unexpected support from working class voters unrecognized by polling.
@The role of the Senator has changed to being 100 national bully pulpits:
Massachusetts already has a national leader in the Senate. If Ms. Warren somehow wins the general election in 2020, then Mr. Kennedy could strive to claim that mantle. He would not require a movement of supporters trashing Mr. Markey to do so.
I think Joe Kennedy is running on name recognition and age bias. Do you think JKIII will initiate a resolution to impeach Justice Kavanaugh? Do you think Mike Capuano would have done that? Is that an example of what we can expect from this “new generation” of legislators? One of the things that comes from experience is judgement. That’s one reason why effective elected officials seldom pop into office from whole cloth, materialized by Disney magic.
I think Ed Markey is a clearly better Senator on the merits. I think he gets more real work done in a month than JKIII will get done in his first year (if elected).
I don’t see a movement of supporters trashing Markey. If anything, his supporters are the ones trash talking Kennedy and dragging his family foibles through the mud in order to win a campaign. Or erroneously accusing him of being a climate heretic.
JK3 is the rare kind of liberal who is still welcomed to campaign in West Virginia and West Pennsylvania. He’s the rare kind of liberal who is invited to campaign with immigrants in East Boston and endorsed by line workers in Dorchester. I think he has the potential to bring the party together and be a national leader.
I think JKIII is an excellent choice to fill the seat vacated by Ms. Warren if she wins the nomination. I think he’s similarly an excellent choice to replace Mr. Markey when Mr. Markey retires (probably in advance of the 2026 election).
Mr. Kennedy is running for a seat in Massachusetts, not West Virginia or western Pennsylvania. Are you suggesting that we should compare JKIII with Joe Manchin or Shelley Capito?
I don’t WANT a “rare kind of liberal who is still welcomed to campaign in West Virginia and West Pennsylvania”. I know those states. I know that electorate. If that’s who JKIII is, then I encourage him to move to and run in either of those places.
I hope that immigrants in East Boston and line workers in Dorchester are able to see past the photo-ops and grandstanding and recognize genuine commitment and lifelong public service — earned in the trenches and on the lines, rather than claimed as an inheritance. Malden is not Hyannisport.
It is JKIII’s decision to attempt to unseat Mr. Markey that I find arrogant and unwise.
I think this comment is also quite frequent and negates a lot of the negative attacks against Kennedy. Everybody here praised him after his state of the union response, people in his district seem to like him, and people here are always asking for primary challengers against incumbents they don’t like. In that climate they will inevitably happen to people you do like.
The height of arrogance is running for re-election on auto pilot year after year and assuming you have a safe Senate seat until you’re carried out in a pine box. I think it’s very unlikely Markey retires in 2026 if re-elected, that’s another reason to retire him early in 2020. We need new voices in the Senate.
Many of us ask for primaries against DINOs, which Markey definitely is not. Surely you understand the difference. Also, why can’t we simultaneously praise JKIII’s SOTU response and prefer he not challenge Markey?
@auto-pilot etc:
Every elected official I can remember has at one time or another done or proposed something I disagree with. For example both Mr. Markey and Ms. Warren seek to repeal the ACA tax on medical devices. So far as I can tell, this is pure home-town boosterism. I think it’s bad policy and I don’t like to see them striving to repeal a reasonable and appropriate tax in order to please big-business interests in Massachusetts.
The fact that I agree with much of what they say does not negate that criticism.
I “like” people with pleasing voices. I “like” certain foods, and I “like” some music more than others.
I’m not criticizing JKIII because I dislike him.
Nobody — absolutely NOBODY (except you) — has said that Mr. Markey is not a fine senator doing a fine job. In particular, JKIII is not basing his primary challenge on ANY substantive issues where Mr. Markey has taken a posture that JKIII disagrees with.
That is why I find JKIII’s primary challenge distasteful. Since there are no policy differences, his campaign is therefore based on pedigree and age. I get that you join many in the electorate in apparently discarding objective or rational arguments in favor of emotional and subjective ones. I think that’s a disturbing trend that I resist.
I like you. I think you’re very mistaken about supporting JKIII in this primary. Those two statements are not inconsistent.
When we are picking between candidates that agree on most of the issues it’s bound to come down to subjective differences. For some here, those differences are the degrees to which one candidate has a longer or subjectively better record on climate compared to the other. I think that’s a valid reason. Climate is the number one issue for a lot of voters and Markey is clearly winning the activist vote on that issue, and he deserves to. The nuclear freeze is another issue that you and others have cited where Markey made a personal and emotional connection.
I’ve met them both and talked to them at length about policy issues I cared about. Joe came across as both wonkier and more down to Earth than Markey who had his talking points memorized and was used to quickly answering a question and moving on to the next person. Joe took the time to get to know me and hear my perspective and he made a point of looking me in the eye when he talked and his passion seemed sincere. He’s come across great in every tv and radio interview I’ve seen him give. He’s far more substantive and articulate than his father or Patches.
He’s part of my generation and I think we are the ones leading on gun control, leading on climate, and leading on finally having real conversations about race.
I agree with Bob and Doubleman that they are both too comfortable with conventional foreign policy approaches to world issues. I’d rather someone closer to Bernie or Pressley willing to jettison problematic alliances and retool our foreign policy around collective problem solving through diplomacy rather than acting like the worlds policeman. I see far too few Democrats embrace that new direction. Otherwise, I am comfortable with either as my Senator, but I relate to Joe more and think his best days are ahead of him.
I take exception to your implication that Senators should not be expected to do real work on behalf the people.
I’m not attacking them, just being reality based. You critiqued Warren for passing few of her big changes in the Senate, but the reality is McConnell will not let them come to a vote. I cannot think of a major piece of legislation in the last two decades that originated in the Senate and was successfully advanced by Senators. The Senate has become the place where good bills go to die.
Markey can criticize Kennedy all he wants for failing to be the original author of the Green New Deal, but this is a bill that will never pass without a Democratic Senate majority or a Democrat in the White House. I think Kennedy is a better national advocate for these priorities and is a likelier ally for those efforts and a potential President in is own right. Markey is none of those things. He’s the least well known Senator in the country, least well known statewide official, and beyond his base of climate activists I don’t see him winning this primary.
You make good points, and I agree that he is a strong communicator, I question his leadership on a lot of issues, including one you cite.
He finally came around on Medicare for All after about 120 of his colleagues had. When he announced support he said:
That is some rich stuff. It’s easy to translate that to “I waited it for it to become a political liability for me not to.” You can say that about bills through committee, but for generational change ideas, it is complete BS. Those issues are all easy amendments, and at least about 120 of his colleagues understand that basic idea.
The same can be said for his support for cannabis legalization. Very late to the game with lots of weak excuses (including a legitimately terrifying one – police wouldn’t be able search a car after smelling cannabis if it was legal, which is one of the clearest arguments FOR legalization).
I’m glad he’s moved. Welcome to the party, glad to have your support. Will I look for you to lead on other issues, especially controversial ones? Absolutely not. Show some actual risk taking and challenging of some power. He hasn’t.
Joe Kennedy says this a time for new ideas. What are those ideas? Is he a leader on student loan cancellation? True criminal justice reform (or just the watered down, easy version for white liberals)?
I’m with you on incumbent challenges by more progressive challengers. This one ain’t it. Let’s see if he comes out in favor for AOC’s new suite of legislation, the Just Society, which is directly targeted at income inequality, eradicating poverty, and . . . uh. . . building a more just society.
Also, do we know yet? Has JKIII sold his $1.5M in fossil fuel stocks?
Markey also took corporate dollars from companies he was regulating and was once on the wrong side of choice, gay rights, and more recently the Iraq War. It’s unclear if he’s ever repudiated his Biden esque opposition to busing. It’s great what he did in the 80’s and 90’s, it’s impossible to do that kind of stuff in today’s Washington barring a unified government. I think Kennedy is more likely to be a national figure on the same issues we all care about in such a government. They are both flawed candidates, but one took four years to evolve instead of forty and has another thirty plus years left to lead.
I agree that Kennedy has potential. Right now, he would be a step backwards. I think Markey is good. Others could be better – for example, Warren is an obviously more effective and progressive leader in the same role. I don’t see it with Kennedy.
I know Tom will jump in to disagree, but looking at Pressley v Capuano, that was an immediate improvement with loads of potential. This is different. Frankly, I’d rather see Pressley run for this seat. Or Katherine Clark. Or dozens of other people. If there was another, more progressive challenger, where can I send the check? Everyone has to earn their seat – keeping it or winning it – and I hope those looking for more progressive leadership don’t back Kennedy.
I don’t believe Kennedy is a unique, generational leader. I think he’s got a name that gives him way too much deference in this state. And when I see what he says and where he stands I’m honestly depressed for my millennial generation. He’s like Buttigieg to me – says nice things but is mainly a person running to be my parents’ pick. But that’s for me. Maybe he will win, but if you’re committed to progressive goals, and certainly if you consider yourself a leftist, what’s the deal?
See I’ve seen a lot of Markey backers on twitter say the same thing, and I think even David (on Facebook) and Charley admitted holding similar thoughts (correct me if I’m wrong!). That to me shows how weakly Markey and his decades of experience fighting for climate change really are valued in the scheme of things.
Pressley is even less experience in the house and on climate than Joe Kennedy, but she looks and sounds more like change than he does and would inarguably be a bolder and more visible leader in the Senate. So I think in stating this there is a clear admittance that Markey is lacking in some 21st century political skillsets. Mainly, the ability to be on multiple platforms, build intersectional and inter generational coalitions, and be bold in confronting the Republicans.
I’d probably pick Pressley too, but she isn’t running in this, and if you listen to her and Joe talk about fighting for immigrants on Jim Braude I think you’d see that they are cut from the same cloth.
Also for what it’s worth, Joe should agree to the damn debates and sell the stupid stock. I won’t defend him on those points.
Pressley has much much more experience in politics and actual work than Kennedy. Markey is a leader on a critical issue of the moment. Kennedy is a leader on his own career. I’ve seen the clip. I don’t see them on the same level at all.
Kennedy will be a better campaigner. Better leader, I still don’t see it.
Do you think JKIII will co-sponsor or support Ms. Pressley’s resolution to impeach Mr. Kanavaugh?
Do you think that resolution is an example of the positive change we need?
Progressive Punch lists Markey as the most progressive current Senator, FWIW.
I’m still on the fence….and if time allows, I’ll be at a local event this coming Monday to hear Joe speak. I’ve got nothing at all against Markey on hard issues, same for Kennedy. Neither one has shown the ability to deliver a crowd raising speech. That would be something I would look for.
This is pretty funny.
AOC has endorsed Markey.
The entrenched incumbent AOC beat, Joe Crowley, is now hosting a fundraiser for Joe Kennedy.
Heh — as Ralph Wright famously said — “All politics is personal.”
I find the particular cast of characters funny, but it also speaks to another point about challenges generally and Kennedy’s in particular.
AOC challenged an establishment incumbent and did so on aggressive organizing, deeply progressive politics, and a commitment to the people, not the donor class. I think that’s important for challengers, if they want to make a case for being a new, progressive leader.
Kennedy is a full-fledged member of the donor class. And he’s now being hosted at fundraisers by establishment folks with people donating $5600 for the event.
@jconway = is that the kind of change you’re interested in?
Admittedly, Markey is no small-donor hero, but Kennedy seems much worse. Who are his friends?
Fair questions. I’m interested in a strong challenger to an entrenched incumbent and I think Kennedy is the strongest. I think his is a voice that will resonate more on the national stage and for a longer period of time in the future. Ed’s probably a lame duck if he gets re-elected, I think Kennedy will bring more clout with him as a freshmen Senator.
He’s also met with immigrant communities in East Boston, Chelsea, Lawrence and Fitchburg and is really making justice for migrants a center piece of his campaign. It’s definitely an area where Markey has a great record-but the single issue focus on climate policy leaves a lot of other less visible people out. I’ve seen Joe really work for the less visible while Markey just votes the right way on their behalf. He doesn’t work those beats like he does for climate.
Crowley is a private citizen now and can endorse and fundraiser for whomever he wants. It’s not like Kennedy is getting the climate vote in this primary, so he will have to do what Pressley and AOC did and get a lot of new voters to show up. They didn’t run single issue campaigns, they went to communities that hadn’t seen their Congressman in awhile, it at all. Kennedy is going places that haven’t seen Markey in a long time. I think it will pay off.
Crowley isn’t a villain-like Capuano and I would argue like Markey-he was a reliable but unexciting liberal backbencher who got complacent and ran into a younger pol who out worked him. We will see.
Lynch and Neal whom many on this blog want to see lose to their primary challengers are sticking with the incumbent. Warren has to, but she’s gone out of her way to praise Kennedy. Healey, Pressley, and Clark are staying neutral. I find that very interesting as Fred would say.