Crown prince

Patrick Kennedy overcame asthma, scandal, and an early distaste for politics to emerge as the fifth-ranking Democrat in the US House of Representatives. Political scientist Darrell M. West tells how it happened.

by Ian Donnis

After coming to politics somewhat reluctantly, US Representative Patrick Kennedy has enjoyed a rapid ascent. The 33-year-old congressman, who came surprisingly close to losing his first bid for the US House in 1994, is the highest-ranking elected Kennedy of his generation. As chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, he's the architect of the Democrats' drive to regain a majority this fall in the US House of Representatives. Brown University political-science professor Darrell M. West, who tells Kennedy's story in the recently published biography Patrick Kennedy: The Rise to Power (Prentice-Hall), calls him the political crown prince of the closest thing America has to a royal family.

TOP DRAW: Kennedy has used his star power to raise record sums for congressional Democrats.

West, an astute and oft-quoted political observer, became interested in writing about Kennedy because of the growing role played by celebrities in American politics. In previous centuries, the halls of Congress were full of farmers, merchants, and others seeking upward mobility. But the current mix of public cynicism, high campaign costs, weak political parties, and overweening media influence has intensified the importance of fame and personal wealth. If celebrity is reshaping American politics, West says, "no one illustrates that more than Patrick Kennedy."

The youngest of three children of Joan Kennedy and US Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Patrick Kennedy was afflicted by asthma as a child. Because of his illness, he was shy and reticent -- a sharp contrast to other Kennedy children. Patrick Kennedy was disinclined to pursue politics until his cousin Joe ran for Congress from Massachusetts's Eighth District in 1986. As West writes, Kennedy has also been touched by five scandals, any one of which could have ended his political career: news of his experimentation with drugs in prep school; the Palm Beach rape accusation against William Kennedy Smith in 1991 and Patrick's Kennedy's role as a witness in his cousin's trial; his high-profile and ultimately successful battle with former Rhode Island House Speaker Joe DeAngelis; news that his cousin Michael Kennedy had slept with a teenage babysitter; and fundraising controversies in 1996 that required the return of illegal donations, including some raised in a Buddhist temple. Yet he steadily gained strength, and in 10 years he moved from the state legislature to a seat as the fifth-ranking Democrat in the US House of Representatives.

West's book, a vivid chronicle of Rhode Island's recent political history, is generally favorable toward Kennedy. He's described as someone motivated by a sincere belief in public service, but also as a pragmatist who moved to the center, away from his proud self-description as a liberal, as the Gingrich revolution unfolded on the eve of his entry into national politics. In the same way, he's seen as having benefited tremendously from his membership in America's leading political family, invoking the Kennedy name and using his personal wealth when it suits his purposes and cutting himself off from the press when it doesn't.

What is most notable about the Kennedys, West says, is their ability to dream big. In closing his book, he notes that a trio of experienced Rhode Island reporters didn't blink when Kennedy, as a 26-year-old state rep, calmly said yes when asked whether he'd like to run for president someday. West, who is working on his 10th book, spoke with the Phoenix in his office at Brown.

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Ian Donnis can be reached at idonnis[a]phx.com.