CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
– POLITICS
July 5, 2009 – 9:55 a.m.
Rhode Island’s Kennedy Favored Despite Latest Rough Patch
By Emma Dumain, CQ Staff
Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy , a member of the famed Democratic political family, has for years been open with his Rhode Island congressional constituents about his struggles with prescription drug dependency, alcoholism and depression. And the voters in the state’s Democratic-dominated 1st District have consistently re-elected him by landslide margins.
So when the eight-term Democrat, the son of Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy , revealed in June that he again was checking into a rehab facility for an unspecified recurrence of past problems, there was no sense of shock back home.
Nor is there any widespread feeling that Kennedy’s relapse would cause him major political problems if he runs for re-election, as expected, in 2010 — even though a possible bid by state Rep. John Loughlin would give the Republicans their most experienced challenger to Kennedy in a House career that dates back to his first win in 1994.
Kennedy’s position as a strong favorite heading into 2010 persists even though the huge vote shares he has won in his House contests — he took 69 percent in each of his past two contests — are out of sync with the much more modest approval ratings that he receives in polls of 1st District voters. A poll taken in May by Brown University’s Taubman Center for Public Policy in Providence showed that only 42 percent of respondents said they believed Kennedy was doing a “good” or “excellent” job in Congress. According to that survey unit, his approval rating has not exceeded 50 percent since 2005.
Still, it is hardly news that Kennedy, who turns 42 on July 14, has long been wrestling with personal problems. They were first revealed, beginning in 2000, when he was engaged in incidents of what appeared to be irrational behavior, including an alleged assault on an airport security guard (criminal charges were dropped and Kennedy later settled a civil suit in this matter); an accusation that he had badly damaged and then abandoned a rented yacht; and an argument with a woman aboard his own yacht that caused the Coast Guard to intervene.
Then one night in May 2006, he crashed his car into a security barrier near the U.S. Capitol, prompting him to spend a month in rehabilitation at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota after pleading guilty in court to a charge of driving under the influence of prescription painkillers to which he said he had become addicted.
Kennedy has used his experiences to become a leading advocate for equitable treatment of people with mental illnesses. But since last year, he has been dealing with stresses related to the precarious health of his father, who has been largely absent from the Senate while under treatment for brain cancer.
Patrick Kennedy, in fact, has dealt with his famous family’s legacy of political triumph and personal tragedy throughout his life. He was born less than four years after his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated in November 1963; less than a year before another uncle, New York Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, was slain in June 1968; and almost exactly two years before his father was in an auto accident in the Massachusetts island town of Chappaquiddick in which a young woman passenger drowned.
History of Loyalty
What is it about Patrick Kennedy that has kept him in office year after year?
Bill Lynch, chairman of the Rhode Island Democratic Party, said that in a small state like Rhode Island, a familiar face goes a long way. “Here, people expect to know their elected officials on a personal basis,” Lynch said. “Kennedy has worked hard at maintaining personal connections . . . He sees, meets, talks to his constituents, and attends every local event you can think of.”
Gio Cicione, chairman of the state Republican Party, also noted the upside of Kennedy’s famous family name.
“His name recognition has something to do with it,” said Cicione. “Because he is a Kennedy and because his father is who he is, there’s an impression that he can do more for our state than someone who doesn’t have that name recognition or political history.”
There also is his openness about his personal problems, seen as a shield against the political damage they might cause. In 2006, just three days after Kennedy retreated to the Mayo Clinic, his fellow state Democrats endorsed him for re-election. His constituents also showed their loyalty that year by giving him 69 percent of the vote, his highest vote share in 10 years.
“He’s dealing very publicly with what would normally be a very personal struggle,” said Lynch. “He hasn’t hidden from it. As a result, people have developed a tremendous respect for him.”
Darrell West — a biographer of Patrick Kennedy and former Brown University professor who currently is director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution — cited Kennedy’s ability to “bounce back” after previous episodes of personal problems. These included the enactment in 2008 of the mental health parity law (PL 110-343) — part of the broad financial markets bailout — shepherded by Kennedy, which requires insurance providers to treat mental and physical illnesses equally.
“Voters are focused on performance there,” West explained. “When Kennedy came out of rehab before, there were no noticeable political consequences, so people were willing to support him, and they appreciated the fact that he had difficulties and got help.”
And Kennedy benefits from the religious affinities of Rhode Island, West said. The nephew of the only Roman Catholic president in history, Kennedy is a representative in a state where two-thirds of all residents affiliate with the religion, by far the nation’s largest percentage.
“This is a very Catholic state, so voters are used to confessing their sins and asking for forgiveness . . . ” West said. “I think it does contribute to the culture of the state, and in that way, the state is very different from most other places. And I think it’s helped Kennedy, politically.”
Looking Ahead
The biggest bit of political insurance for Kennedy, though, is the district’s long history as a Democratic Party stronghold.
While state registration figures showed that unaffiliated voters constituted the largest voting bloc in Rhode Island as of October 2008, they tend to vote alongside Democrats on Election Day. Barack Obama triumphed with a whopping 63 percent of the state vote in 2008, marking the sixth consecutive election in which Rhode Island went Democratic for president. All four of the state’s members of Congress — Sens. Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse , Reps. Kennedy and Jim Langevin — are Democrats, as are more than 90 percent of the state legislators.
“I don’t really see him having trouble in 2010, unless some very credible person came along to challenge him in the primary . . . that’s where a serious challenge would have to come from,” said Marion Orr, a professor at Brown University who runs the Taubman Center and administers the surveys of local political opinion.
Loughlin, the state lawmaker who is the only Republican challenger to express interest in the 2010 House race so far, indicated that he thinks he could defy these tough odds — though by targeting Kennedy’s House record on issues involving the state’s recession-plagued economy, rather than his personal issues.
“I think Rhode Islanders are less concerned with his health problems than with his big spending, and the bills he has sponsored and supported in Washington that are hurting the people back home,” said Loughlin, who first was elected to the state House in 2004 and currently is one of just six Republicans in the 75-member body. “We’re really hurt here in Rhode Island with the economic crisis. I hear people say the congressman brings home the bacon, but not if you ask the 11 percent that’s unemployed here.”
But even leaders of Loughlin’s own party say unseating Kennedy would be a tall order.
“I don’t know what Kennedy would have to do to lose an election, given the history,” said state party chairman Cicione. “I’ve never seen any of his shenanigans or antics cause a blip in his number.”
Cicione added, “In my opinion, they should have, given the things he’s done, but voters don’t agree with that.”
Kennedy’s campaign finance report for the first quarter, which ran from Jan. 1 through March 31, raised some eyebrows: He raised a modest $59,000 — with none of the itemized contributions from residents of Rhode Island — although some money left over from his last campaign gave him a more robust cash on hand total of $215,000.
A Kennedy aide played down those figures, stating, “He’s really just been focused on his job, not on the next campaign. He’s focused on working for the people of the 1st District. At the end of the day, he’ll let the politics take care of themselves.”
Second-quarter House campaign finance reports are due to be filed with the Federal Election Commission by July 15.
Comments
This would be an interesting case study to see whether this "behavior" is genetically predisposed or of an environmental root (learn by example).
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