Joseph P. Kennedy III May Seek House Seat: Delahunt Retires Kennedy III Emerges?

Joseph P. Kennedy, III, one of the twin sons of former Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II may run for the U.S. House 10th District seat in Massachusetts in November. Rep. William Delahunt is sending signals that he may not seek re-election. The Kennedy-Free Congress may be a short-lived memory. Democrat operatives are believed to be making it happen. Young Joe has little to lose, other than the Kennedy legacy. No Kennedy has ever lost an election in Massachusetts.

Joseph P. Kennedy, III

J.P. Kennedy, III is 29 years old. A Massachusetts Democrat leaked the story today that he is considering a run. Kennedy the Even Younger is a graduate of Stanford University and, of course, Harvard Law. He is a prosecutor in Barnstable County, and registered to vote in Cape Cod. The 10th District represents the South Shore and Cape Cod. Don't miss the story of Joe III's mother a few paragraphs down.

Delahunt, who has not faced a serious challenge since 1996, told the Boston Globe on February 13th, he is considering retiring.  He is under pressure for his failure to investigate University of Alabama Huntsville murderer, Dr. Amy Bishop in 1986 after she shot and killed her 18-year-old brother Sean when Delahunt was a Massachusetts District Attorney. Bishop shot  and killed three of her peers at a UAH department meeting in early February. Three additional persons were wounded, two of them critically.

The circumstances around Sean's death should have called for an investigation, instead then-Police of Chief Polio spoke by phone with then-District Attorney William Delahunt, and when Polio got off of the phone, Amy Bishop was allowed to go home - no further investigation, no charges - even though a car dealer salesman told police Bishop walked into his showroom minutes after the shooting, still armed with her shotgun, and acted in a threatening manner. There was never a follow-up interview with the saleman, and recent reports say that the autopsy report lacks pertinent data. As District Attorney, the autopsy was under Delahunt's oversight. Bishop's mother was well-known in Braintree and some believe her influence shutdown a investigation.

Massachusetts Democrats are said to trying to broker an "endorse Joe III and retire" plan for Delahunt. Joe the Younger is said to be a bright star among the other Kennedys in his generation, and he will no doubt be a front runner from the moment his candidacy is announced.

An interesting Kennedy-side-story: Joe III's father, Joe II divorced his mother, Sheila Rauch Kennedy after 12 years in 1991. Joe II asked the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston to annul the marriage on the grounds that he was not mentally capable of entering the marriage in 1979. Sheila Rauch, an Episcopalian, refused to agree to the annulment.

Joe II married Beth Kelly, his former staffer anyway, in a civil ceremony in 1993. Rauch later discovered that the Boston Archdiocese granted Kennedy the annulment secretly in 1996. Rauch appealed the annulment to the Vatican and in 2005, the Vatican reversed the annulment. Astonishing that an Episcopalian woman could fight the power of the Kennedy's and a powerful diocese...and win.

Republican Jeffry Davis Perry, currently a third term Massachusetts State Congressman announced his U.S. House candidacy on February 2nd. He will kickoff his race, and his first fundraiser for the Massachusetts 10th District on March 5, 2010.

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