The listener had demanded a simple ”yes or no” answer to his question, and so the candidate responded that yes he does indeed favor the death penalty.
The answer drew audible gasps from the audience at a campaign forum last week in Belmont, Mass., gasps not because of the position itself but because of who was articulating it–Joseph P. Kennedy 2d, scion of a political dynasty that has come to define American liberalism.
When the eldest son of the late Sen. Robert Kennedy announced his candidacy for Congress in Massachusetts` polyglot 8th District late last year, it generally was assumed he would present himself as a conventional progressive in the tradition of his famous family.
But Kennedy, 33, has surprised many observers by staking out conservative positions on a number of issues during the early stages of what is turning into a genuine contest for the seat being vacated by retiring House Speaker Thomas P. O`Neill (D., Mass.).
Although still considered the frontrunner in a crowded field for the Democratic nomination, Kennedy appears to be having some difficulty expanding his support beyond those older Irish voters who cherish the memory of his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, who represented the district during the late 1940s.
A poll on the race conducted last month for Boston`s WBZ-TV showed Kennedy leading the pack with 30 percent of the vote. George Bachrach, a prominent liberal state senator, came next with 15 percent; black activist Mel King had 13 percent; and James Roosevelt Jr., a Boston attorney and grandson of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, polled 5 percent.
Among those in the survey identified as most likely to vote in the Sept. 16 primary, Kennedy`s lead dropped one percentage point while the second-place Bachrach gained two points. Polls taken when Kennedy entered the contest last December had shown him with the backing of nearly 40 percent of the voters.
”I think it`s starting to narrow,” Bachrach said. ”Joe has one out of three voters, and he will always have those voters. His problem is to attract the undecideds.”
Bachrach argues that with Kennedy`s name recognition already at something like 95 percent in the district, it is a fair assumption that the vast majority of those who will end up voting for Kennedy already have decided to do so.
King, who ran a strong but unsuccessful race for mayor of Boston two years ago, is almost as well-known as Kennedy but is struggling to expand his support beyond the black community, a relatively small constituency within the district.
Comprising the affluent Beacon Hill and Back Bay sections of Boston, the academic center of Cambridge and such white ethnic communities as Somerville, Waltham and Watertown, the district often has been described as among the most liberal in the country.
In the 1984 general election, President Reagan received barely 30 percent of the district`s vote, this while winning re-election in a national landslide and carrying even progressive Massachusetts by a narrow margin.
Kennedy has managed to anger a number of the district`s liberal ideologues by supporting the death penalty–he explains his attitudes on crime stem in part from the assassinations of his father and uncle–by his backing of Reagan`s recent bombing of Libya and by his complaint that a system of free national health insurance, long a crusade of his uncle, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D., Mass.), and other liberals, would ”break the country.”
Nonetheless, candidate Kennedy`s basic message is a traditional liberal concern: the unfair burden of taxes on ”ordinary, hard-working families.”
As other candidates in the contest concentrate on criticizing him, Kennedy aims his fire squarely at the White House.
”I think what we`ve seen is an attack on the middle class and poor,”
Kennedy said in his announcement speech. ”It`s hard to link it to Reagan because you look at him, and he`s such a nice guy. But you can see it in his policies. When you double the defense budget and slash all these domestic programs, that`s an attack. It just outrages me.”
Assaults such as this, coupled with Kennedy`s other relatively conservative positions, have led to complaints that he is inconsistent, a charge his leading supporters strongly deny.
”What you get with Joe Kennedy are his own ideas; he doesn`t follow a particular liberal ideology,” said his campaign director, Charles McDermott. Other Kennedy partisans say his experience as head of the Citizens Energy Corp., a nonprofit company that he founded in the late 1970s to provide cut-rate heating fuel to low-income Massachusetts residents, has convinced him that the business community must be involved in a partnership with government to solve the nation`s social problems.
With more than four months remaining until the primary (the Democratic nomination is tantamount to election in this overwhelmingly Democratic district), Kennedy`s largely young and inexperienced campaign staff has made no more mistakes than most campaign staffs, although the blunders they have committed have been amplified greatly by the intense media attention being given the campaign.
Two weeks ago, for instance, it was revealed that Kennedy`s staff had rejected a $100 campaign contribution from former Sen. James Abourezk, a liberal Democrat from South Dakota and a longtime Kennedy family friend, partly because of Abourezk`s affiliation with an Arab-American
antidiscrimination organization, an affiliation that the campaign staff apparently feared would offend Jewish voters.
Although Kennedy quickly apologized for the rejection, saying he had personally been unaware of it, an angry Abourezk denounced the rebuff as a
”most prominent case of racist campaigning.” The controversy was accorded extensive daily coverage by the Boston media for more than a week.
Political observers here generally agree that neither the Abourezk affair nor other gaffes have jeopardized seriously Kennedy`s frontrunner status.
However, the candidate`s top aides are concerned that the field of contenders could be whittled down to the point where the contest becomes essentially a two-man race.
Already, two well-known state legislators have dropped out; Roosevelt has shown surprisingly little strength, and King, although maintaining a respectable level in the polls, is having problems raising money.
That leaves Bachrach, a conspicuous champion of an array of liberal causes and a proven vote-getter whose state senate district comprises more than one-third of the congressional district.
Should Kennedy be forced to face Bachrach head-to-head, Kennedy probably would be seen as the less experienced and the more conservative of the two, not necessarily the best position to be in in this district–even if your name is Kennedy.
