Patrick Kennedy decides against reelection after father’s death, Mass. upset
By Andrew Miga, APThursday, February 11, 2010
Kennedy won’t run for re-election in RI
WASHINGTON — Rep. Patrick Kennedy has decided not to seek re-election to Congress, saying his life is “taking a new direction.”
Kennedy taped a message to be aired on television in Rhode Island on Sunday night. The Associated Press viewed the message ahead of the announcement.
The decision by the eight-term congressman comes less than a month after a stunning Republican upset in the race for the Massachusetts Senate seat his late father, Edward Kennedy, held for almost half a century.
Patrick Kennedy has been in and out of treatment for substance abuse since crashing his car outside the U.S Capitol in 2006. Still, he has been comfortably re-elected twice since then, after making mental health care his signature issue.
Tags: Edward Kennedy, Geography, North America, Providence, Rhode Island, United States, Washington