How Joe Kennedy Got the Dems' Nod

The question was not whether Joseph P. Kennedy II could win the Democratic primary last Tuesday but whether "Young Joe" won this election some time around 1946.

The long and regular series of polls, which came out twice weekly during the end of the campaign, helped turn this into a political horse race, but it was one for lovers of long odds.

The nearly single-party system of Democratic dominance in the historically influential Eighth Congressional District made the primary victory a virtual guarantee of an election win November 4, although Clark Abt, the Cambridge businessman who won the simultaneous Republican contest, receives considerable support from conservative interests.

The race narrowed to two candidates only within a few weeks of the decisive election on September 16. Allston State Rep. Thomas M. Gallagher, who left the race in June, commented that liberal State Sen. George Bachrach had won "Race A"--a sort of unofficial primary election to become the contender opposite Kennedy. As Gallagher went on to say, the race in the real primary was beyond Bachrach--perhaps beyond any other candidate.

From the moment Kennedy announced his candidacy, he was set against a pack of local office holders and activists. They could hardly attain the polish of a campaign that tapped the best political talent in the country and much of its media, and which could afford not to cut corners. While Bachrach spent about $500,000 from January to September, the Kennedy campaign laid out more than $1 million.

Donations to the fund included contributions from the candidate's distinguished relatives and recent in-laws, plus a multitude of other executives and celebrities.

Kennedy also had the luxury of running an entirely positive campaign until the very last days of the race. His opponents undermined and occasionally eliminated each other throughout the spring. However, despite "Young Joe's" frequent verbal slips, they shied away from criticizing the eldest son of Robert F. Kennedy '48.

James Roosevelt Jr. '68, the notable exception, concealed his conciliatory private manner by making ill-advised direct attacks on the front-runner early in the race. As early as March, he had been dismissed as a shrill, small voice. Meanwhile, Kennedy found earnest and unsolicited defenders among devotees of his family, who abound in the district which first elected John F. Kennedy '40 to Congress in 1946.

Bachrach, meanwhile, ran an offensivecampaign--occasionally in more senses than one.The challenger almost had a chance in late August,when he rode to within five poll percentage pointsof his opponent on the campaign's first directKennedy-bashing. He questioned the candidate'sknowledge of the district, since Kennedy has onlylived in Brighton since his children finishedschool in Marshfield last spring. He also attackedseveral changes in position that appeared to havebeen strategic rather than moral decisions.

The runner-up destroyed any chance he had topull ahead with an ill-timed decision to stresshis differences of opinion with Kennedy, choosingto attack his opponent's support for the U.S.bombing of Libya.

He also underestimated Kennedy's ability toattack from the platform, and a two-prongedassault, one subtle and the other spontaneous,ended his credibility for many voters who did notseparate failed tactics from a nearly successfulcandidate.

The first attack began with Roosevelt andactivist Melvin H. King, who were then trailing inthe polls and attacking both of the topcontenders. Their charges that the state senatorhad been an ineffective legislator were at firstignored by the Bachrach camp.

When Kennedy joined the other two candidates instressing the effectiveness issue, Bachrach hadonly begun to deny the allegations, too late toerase a growing negative impression with voters.

In a last effort to portray Kennedy as unworthyof his name, he repeated Roosevelt's early mistakeof levelling an ill-founded and belligerentaccusation, hoping the candidate would reactunsuitably. He chose a television debate toconfront Kennedy with the fact that a subsidiaryof his Citizens Energy Corporation had limitedfinancial relations with three Libyan banks.

Kennedy's reply will probably be remembered ashis official entry into the family tradition. Hedeclared that he absolutely would not deal withthe country that offered asylum to Sirhan Sirhan,his father's assassin, and that the three banks'holdings did not give them any say in thegoverning of his corporation.

The rest is already being written into a book,to be called "Joseph P. Kennedy II and BostonPolitics"--the politics that failed to humble him