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Yet he has his own uneasy relationship with being a Kennedy. Mark bristles when it is suggested he is running on his name, but he hasn't forged much of an individual identity. He's against the death penalty, in favor of education spending--dependably Kennedyesque. The family has in fact been crucial to Mark in his bid to unseat popular Republican Congresswoman Connie Morella next year. Uncle Ted has given two fund raisers on his behalf so far. His campaign has appropriated two time-honored Kennedy themes: money and influence. Mark has outraised his three primary opponents combined, in a race that Democrats know will be expensive if they are to have a prayer of beating Morella.
Mark's candidacy presents an excruciating dilemma for many Maryland Democrats. His primary opponent is State Senator Christopher Van Hollen, 42, a hero to environmentalists, education groups and gun-control advocates--the voters that Democrats will need to defeat Morella. There's talk of a Solomonic solution: redistricting Montgomery County into two so that Van Hollen can run in the heavily Democratic parts and Shriver can vie with Morella for the rest. If that doesn't happen, Kathleen could lend a hand by tapping Van Hollen for the second spot on her ticket. It helps to have friends--and especially family--in the right places.
DIMINISHED EXPECTATIONS PATRICK KENNEDY
For a decade, Patrick Kennedy's career was set on fast forward. He had lived in Rhode Island just a year and was only a college sophomore when he decided to take on a 10-year incumbent for the state legislature in 1988. "Who's Patrick Kennedy?" Jack Skeffington asked when he heard about his upstart primary opponent. "Is it a big deal?"
A very big deal, as it turned out. Ted detailed a top staff member to the campaign and called nearly every day to urge his son to work harder. Patrick knocked on 3,000 doors and spent an unheard-of $93,000--$73 for every vote he got--to win a $300-a-year job. On Election Day, Ted, Joan and John Jr. stationed themselves at polling places with hired photographers and Polaroid cameras, posing for souvenir snapshots with voters. Even Skeffington's campaign manager had one taken. Patrick won in a landslide, and on election night Ted phoned Jackie and Rose to announce that it had been his "happiest election."
Patrick was 26 the first time he was asked on television whether he would someday like to run for President, and he didn't hedge: "Yes." When he arrived in Washington as a freshman Congressman in 1995, the only question seemed to be when he would make his move for the Senate. Ted made no secret of his dream to see his son serve alongside him.