Photo: John Nordell
Senator Kennedy speaks at the Gillette factory. Date unknown
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This article originally appeared in the October 28, 1994 issue of the Boston Phoenix
It's the untold story of the campaign: for 30 years, Massachusetts's senior senator has demonstrated unparalleled leadership on civil rights, crime, health care, welfare reform, education, the environment, and the international scene. And he hasn't neglected to bring home the bacon, either.
When a 32-year incumbent seeks re-election, there is a long and well-documented record that can be examined. So it's disconcerting to note that admit all the miles of newsprint and videotape that have been expended covering the US Senate campaign, little has been said of what Ted Kennedy has or hasn't accomplished.
Thirty-two cannot be captured in a 30-second TV spot or a nine-second soundbite. Even Republican candidate Mitt Romney has shied away from discussion of Kennedy's record, offering few specific criticisms other than to blame his opponent, in broad strokes, for all that is unpopular or wrong in Washington.
In the absence of any knowledge of what Ted Kennedy has achieved – or failed to achieve – Romney wins the image war. Edward Moore Kennedy, 62, is old and overweight. Willard Mitt Romney, 47, is young, rich, and handsome. Governor Bill Weld calls his fellow Republican "one impressive piece of horseflesh." The voters on the receiving end of Romney's ad blitz know that every other word out of that horse's mouth is "change."
Yet no matter who wins this election, change is the only certain outcome. The question ought to be whether the presence of Kennedy or Romney in the Senate will make change for the good more likely than the change for the bad.
After all, the removal of John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy by bullet brought change. Now, by virtue of his having lived a full, productive life, Ted Kennedy can be said to have accomplished more than either of his brothers His removable – by ballot – would also bring change. But if we are going to change senators in 1994, we ought to know what it is we are changing.
Billions for Massachusetts
According to his supporters, Kennedy is a legislative giant who has fought and won countless battles for working men and women, for young people and the elderly, for liberty, equality, and the environment. They say Teddy has been an economic security blanket for Massachusetts, and that the loss of his influence and experience would harm the local economy for years to come.
To his critics, Kennedy is the protector of big government and liberal immorality. They say he is the symbol – if not the source – of the evils that flow from Washington.
Kennedy holds the Senate seat once occupied by John Quincy Adams, from `803 to 1808, and Daniel Webster, from 1827 to 1841 and again from 1845 to 1850. It's also the seat that was filled by John Kennedy, from 1953 until he was elected president, in 1960.
Historian Thomas Boylston Adams believes Ted Kennedy's career has more closely resembled those of Adams and of Webster, who were leading voices against slavery, than that of his older brother. "John Kennedy was not very much interested in being senator," he says. "Ted has really made something of it."
Ted Kennedy has been a national senator: a leader for civil and equal rights, and for the economic needs of working Americans in employment, education, and health. He remains an internationally respected leader on human-rights issues. And he has repeatedly prevented the right wing from implementing much of its social agenda, even during the Reagan-Bush era (see "Kennedy and the Court," page 18).
But Kennedy has also brought home billions of dollars through construction projects, university and medical grants, defense dollars, small-business aid, and environmental and arts funding.
In the past decade alone, Kennedy has steered $5 billion to the Central Artery/Tunnel Project and $4.3 billion to the Boston Harbor cleanup. And there is more. Just a few examples:
* $500 million in small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants. In fiscal 1992, Massachusetts's share of SBIR dollars reached 17.5 percent of the national total.
* $770 million annually in National Institutes of Health grants, for projects that have created 4000 jobs.
* $200 million to local universities.
* $90 million in arts grants.
* $30 million to Massachusetts through his Ryan White AIDS Care program.The record shows that Kennedy has delivered hundreds of additional grants for education, transportation, environmental protection, economic development, law enforcement, job training, and military and medical projects – far beyond what Massachusetts would have received without his influence.
Although Romney's advertising has attempted to portray Kennedy as
ineffective, the majority of Kennedy's critics acknowledge that they dislike him precisely because he succeeds in achieving his goals where less powerful legislators fail.
"When motivated, he can really swing into a battle," says Peter Flaherty, national director of the Conservative Campaign Fund. "His strength is his willingness to network and to build the liberal activist movement. I say that with a tinge of jealousy, because I wish more Republican senators would be so committed to our activist community."
