Great News: Another Kennedy Preparing to Run in Massachusetts

You figured now that Patches is fleeing Rhode Island we'd be Kennedy-free for a bit, didn't you? Not so fast, my friends, not so fast. Now while you can count me among the legions that want to see William Delahunt take a powder, we should be careful what we wish for.

With speculation mounting that US Representative William D. Delahunt will not seek reelection, Joseph P. Kennedy III, son of the former congressman and great-grandson of the Kennedy family patriarch, is eyeing a run to succeed him in the 10th Congressional District, senior Democratic sources say.

The sources say that Kennedy, a 29-year-old assistant district attorney on the Cape considered by many to be the most promising member of his generation to extend the family’s political legacy, is not close to making any decisions and will not speak publicly until Delahunt announces whether he will seek another term. The discussions are taking place very privately among Kennedy family confidants.

As Delahunt ponders his future and Democratic hopefuls eye a bid for his seat, Kennedy’s potential candidacy is weighing heavily on the field that is starting to take shape.

“If he runs, he is immediately the front-runner,’’ said state Senator Robert O’Leary, Democrat of Barnstable, who said he would run for the seat if Delahunt retires. “From my perspective if Kennedy enters the race, it obviously changes the dynamic and makes it more difficult. But it would not change my decision.’’

One potential hurdle, however, is the political climate in the state, and especially in that district, which went heavily for Republican Scott Brown in last month’s Senate election. If Kennedy were to run and win his party’s nomination, he could risk become a lightning rod for the newly energized conservatives from around the country who poured millions of dollars into Brown’s coffers. With no member of the family ever losing an election in Massachusetts, he would be putting the Kennedy legacy on the line.