Joe Kennedy says he won’t run for senate

[shawmut]

Source: Boston Hearld

Joseph P. Kennedy II said today he will not make a bid for the senate seat held by his late uncle Edward M. Kennedy, in a bombshell announcement expected to draw candidates-in-waiting out from the wings.

“Given all that my uncle accomplished, it was only natural to consider getting back involved in public office, and I appreciate all the calls of support and friendship that have poured in,” Kennedy said in a statement posted on the web site of Citizens Energy, of which he is the founder.

“My father called politics an honorable profession, and I have profound respect for those who choose to advance the causes of social and economic justice in elective office,” Kennedy said. “After much consideration, I have decided that the best way for me to contribute to those causes is by continuing my work at Citizens Energy Corporation.”

Kennedy’s announcement dramatically lessens the possibility that the so-called “Kennedy seat” will remain in the family, with the late senator’s wife Victoria Reggie Kennedy the only other member of the storied clan seen as a possible successor.

Read more: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/us_politics/view/20090907joe_kennedy_says_he_wont_run/srvc=home&position=0