The Invincible Ted Kennedy
The last time Ted Kennedy sought re-election, he faced one of the stiffest challenges of his long political career.
This time around, he may not even break a sweat.
Until recently, it appeared that Kennedy's Republican challenger would be Michael J. Sullivan, district attorney in Plymouth County, Mass. But Sullivan had little money or name recognition despite a solid political background that includes three terms in the Massachusetts House and two terms as district attorney.
Earlier this year, he said he would not be running for the Senate. He cited several reasons, including a distaste for fund raising, satisfaction in his current job and a desire to spend more time with his four school-age children.
The GOP is fielding an unlikely Kennedy challenger in his place: a 39-year-old business executive with no political experience, but $1 million of his own money to spend on the race.
Republican Jack E. Robinson III, a former airline executive now running a cellular phone firm, will run this fall for the seat that Kennedy has held for 37 years.
Robinson met with Gov. Paul Cellucci to discuss his candidacy, and said he was prepared to spend up to $1 million of his personal fortune to do it, The Boston Globe and Herald reported.
Robinson, who is black, is the son of Jack E. Robinson. The elder Robinson once led the local branch of the NAACP, but was forced out in 1995 for opposing affirmative action.
Sources described the younger Robinson as fiscally conservative, but socially moderate and a supporter of abortion rights. He earned an undergraduate degree from Brown University, and law and business degrees from Harvard University.
On his first day as a declared candidate, Robinson found himself fielding reporters' questions about a drunken driving arrest, a speeding ticket and a restraining order filed against him by a former girlfriend two years ago.
Robinson said that his former girlfriend withdrew her complaint after evidence showed she was harassing him. He said he was stopped for drunken driving in the mid-1980s in Boston, but the matter was dropped because he passed a breath test. He also said he was arrested more than 10 years ago for failing to pay a speeding ticket.
Robinson lives in Greenwich, Conn., and is president of National Telecom, located in Stamford, Conn. But he owns property in Boston, and has voted in Massachusetts for the past several years.
"It's perfectly normal and legal," Robinson said in a telephone interview from Boston. " ... I grew up here, I happen to work out of state and now I'm returning."
Nevertheless, not the best start for what would be a tough campaign for any candidate.
"There is no one alive who can beat Ted Kennedy," said Democratic political consultant Michael Goldman of Boston. "And Abraham Lincoln would have a problem if he were to come back."
In 37 years in the Senate, Kennedy has made a name for himself as a champion of progressve causes, from voting and civil rights to raising the minimum wage and universal health coverage. But his triumphs often were obscured by personal problems, most notably his decision to leave the scene of a fatal car accident in 1969.
More recently, during his 1994 re-election bid, Kennedy still was dealing with fallout from the rape trial of his nephew, William Kennedy Smith. Kennedy testified at the trial and acknowledged going to a bar with his son, Rep. Patrick Kennedy, and Smith, who while there met the woman who later claimed she was raped. Kennedy suffered politically even though Smith was acquitted.
The race was bruising. Republican candidate Mitt Romney spent $7.6 million and attacked Kennedy repeatedly. Kennedy painted his opponent as a heartless capitalist.
Kennedy will not comment on his upcoming opponent, his spokesman Will Keyser said.