Congressboy

WHEN Patrick J. Kennedy first ran for political office, in 1988, he spent at least $94,000 to capture 1,324 votes—about $71 apiece. He won a seat in the Rhode Island state legislature, a job that paid $300 per year, by beating a ten-year Democratic incumbent. “These races usually don’t cost more than S6,000,” says Brown University political scientist Darrell West. “Kennedy’s continues to be the most expensive in state legislative history.”

Kennedy was a 21-year-old Providence College junior at the time, and his early political success only burnished the image of the Kennedy clan. Media from around the country charted Patrick’s rise. After he won election to Congress in 1994, many thought it was only a matter of time before this prodigy followed his father, Ted, into the Senate. Because the Constitution requires senators to be at least 30, all Kennedy needed to do was grow up. Republican senator John Chafee’s term was set to expire in 2000, the year of Kennedy’s 33rd birthday. So before Kennedy was even sworn in as a member of Congress, the trajectory of his career appeared certain.

About the Author

John J. Miller

John J. Miller, a former national correspondent for National Review, is the director of the Dow Journalism Program at Hillsdale College. He is the author of A Gift of Freedom: How the John M. Olin Foundation Changed America.

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WHEN Patrick J. Kennedy first ran for political office, in 1988, he spent at least $94,000 to capture 1,324 votes—about $71 apiece. He won a seat in the Rhode Island state legislature, a job that paid $300 per year, by beating a ten-year Democratic incumbent. “These races usually don’t cost more than S6,000,” says Brown University political scientist Darrell West. “Kennedy’s continues to be the most expensive in state legislative history.”

Kennedy was a 21-year-old Providence College junior at the time, and his early political success only burnished the image of the Kennedy clan. Media from around the country charted Patrick’s rise. After he won election to Congress in 1994, many thought it was only a matter of time before this prodigy followed his father, Ted, into the Senate. Because the Constitution requires senators to be at least 30, all Kennedy needed to do was grow up. Republican senator John Chafee’s term was set to expire in 2000, the year of Kennedy’s 33rd birthday. So before Kennedy was even sworn in as a member of Congress, the trajectory of his career appeared certain.

About the Author

John J. Miller

John J. Miller, a former national correspondent for National Review, is the director of the Dow Journalism Program at Hillsdale College. He is the author of A Gift of Freedom: How the John M. Olin Foundation Changed America.