Joseph P. Kennedy III to look at possible run for Congress
Joseph P. Kennedy III is taking the final steps to launch a run for Congress this year, hoping to succeed US Rep. Barney Frank who chose to retire rather than run in his reconfigured district.
Kennedy is opening an exploratory committee for the seat, a legal step that will allow him to raise money immediately, according to senior Democratic sources.
Kennedy is scheduled to meet this afternoon with his current boss, Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr., to inform him he will be leaving his prosecutor’s job to become a political candidate.
The entrance of the son of former US Representative Joseph P. Kennedy II and the grandson of Robert F. Kennedy would mark the first return of the Kennedy family into Massachusetts electoral politics since the death of patriarch, US Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, 2 1/2 years ago.
The Globe reported in late November that the scion of the famed Kennedy clan was considering running.
Raised in Marshfield, Brighton, and Cambridge, Kennedy is a former Peace Corps volunteer and a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Law School.
In early 2011, Kennedy raised a stir in political circles when he delivered a speech at the State House as part of the commemoration of John F. Kennedy’s “City Upon a Hill” address in 1961.
His speech decried the vituperative political rhetoric that he said was tearing the nation’s fabric.
“Pretty amazing,” Senate President Therese Murray said after the speech. “I think we have a new Kennedy. He hit that one right out of the ballpark. ... Another historic speech from another Kennedy.”
