Rhode Island Democratic US Rep. Patrick Kennedy Won’t Seek Reelection in 2010

Add another one to the Democratic list of those who will not seek reelection in 2010. However, this time its RI Democrat US Rep Patrick Kennedy, the son of the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy. Another One Bites the Dust …

Kennedy, 42, was first elected to the House in 1994. His departure will leave Congress without a Kennedy for the first time since 1962, when his father was elected to the Senate seat held previously by his uncle, John F. Kennedy.

In a two-minute video retirement announcement, Kennedy invokes the memory of his father as he explains his decision to leave the House.

“My father instilled in me a deep commitment to public service,” Kennedy says. “Now, having spent two decades in politics, my life is taking a new direction, and I will not be a candidate for reelection this year. Going forward, I will continue many of the fights we’ve waged together, particular on behalf of those suffering from depression, addiction, autism and post-traumatic stress disorder.”

The AP & MSM resorts that it is the end of an era, but one would ask ERA? The Founding Fathers never intended for political service to be a full time, let alone life time appointment. They also fought against royal families of rule, not embracing them.   ther looks at it that Washington, DC is now Kennedy free.

Patrick Kennedy’s retirement will leave the Congress Kennedy-free for the first time since 1962. Could Republicans go 2 for 2 in New England in replacing once held Kennedy seats? Will there be a Scott Brown effect in Rhode Island?

Kennedy stated he had made some missteps, ya think?

“I’m so grateful to the people of Rhode Island. When I made missteps or suffered setbacks, you responded not with contempt but with compassion.”

Yet another seat that Democrats will have to defend in 2010 … Is Nancy Pelsoi getting nervous yet?

UPDATE I: Did Patrick Kennedy retire from the House because he feared a tough challenge? That is what a USA Today article is asking. It appears that the days of Democrats getting a free ride in New England states might be at an end. It would seem that the Scott Brown election in Massachusetts has affected more than just one Kennedy political seat.

It is a trend across America this political cycle, once safe and unopposed Democrat seats are now either being challenged by Republicans, have Republicans in the lead in polls or have Democrats simply retiring rather than suffering election night defeat.

The WPVI-TV poll showed 62% of Rhode Island voters surveyed gave him an unfavorable job approval rating and only 35% said they would vote to re-elect him.

“This could become the race of Patrick Kennedy’s life,” pollster Joe Fleming told WPVI.

The poll surveyed only 250 voters, which is low, and had a margin of error of plus or minus 6.2%, which is high. Nevertheless, it sparked a buzz among conservative bloggers that Patrick Kennedy was “next.” As Hot Air, a right-of-center blog, wrote on Feb. 5: “Kennedy may not be able to withstand the anti-incumbent fervor in what has been a state almost as reliably blue as Massachusetts.”

Patrick Kennedy called Brown’s candidacy “a joke’’ … Looks like the jokes on him and Patrick appears not to be laughing, but saying good bye to politics instead.