Kennedy (right) playing football with his father, 1963
Kennedy had a troubled youth and was expelled from several private schools as a result of his quick temper. He regularly got into fights with his younger brothers and male cousins.[1] He was 15 when his father was assassinated. The night he was shot at the Ambassador Hotel, Kennedy along with two siblings, Kathleen and Robert Jr., were being flown to Los Angeles aboard one of the planes in the Secret Service's presidential fleet".[5]
While on hiatus from college, he worked for several months as part of a federally funded program to combat and treat tuberculosis in the African American community in San Francisco, California.[8] Mayor Joseph Alioto personally praised Kennedy's work in the community.[8] Kennedy resigned from his position in the program and returned to Massachusetts in the summer of 1973.[8]
In 1979, Kennedy founded Citizens Energy Corporation, a non-profit organization to provide discounted heating oil to low-income and elderly families in Massachusetts.[10] According to author J. Randy Taraborrelli, Kennedy started the venture "to alleviate the burden of heating bills for the poor during the oil crisis of that year."[11] By 1984, Citizens Energy helped provide low-cost heat for 250,000 families.[12] In 2010, Kennedy transformed the organization to become a leader in renewable energy generation while continuing to use profits to provide energy savings to low-income families.[13] (See Citizens Energy (since 1979) section below.)
Kennedy's legislative efforts in the U.S. House of Representatives included[19]
Expanding the availability of credit to working Americans to buy homes and to open businesses.[20]
Requiring public disclosure of bank-lending practices in poorer neighborhoods and disclosure of bank home-mortgage approvals and refusals by race, sex, and income.[21][22] Subsequent Federal Reserve Board studies based on these newly required disclosures found widespread evidence of discriminatory-loan practices. One study found that white borrowers in the lowest-income category were approved for mortgages more than African American borrowers in the highest-income category. Data from Boston, Chicago, and Minneapolis found that African Americans were turned down at three times the rate of whites.[23]
Helping create hundreds of thousands of new affordable-housing units nationwide by introducing tax credits to stimulate private investment in neighborhood housing developments after federal housing assistance had been cut by 75 percent during the 1980s.[24]
Chairing the House Banking subcommittee on consumer credit and insurance and holding the first U.S. congressional hearings to expose the lack of access to insurance in low-income neighborhoods.[25]
Overhauling federal public-housing law for the first time in almost 60 years, giving local housing authorities the ability to raise standards while protecting those who depend on public housing for shelter.[28]
Co-chairing the U.S. congressional biotechnology caucus and proposing to preserve and expand federal research and development accounts that stimulate the creation of new technologies and build the foundation for new jobs and business growth.[29]
Proposing the "Mom and Pop Protection Act" to help corner-store owners to install safety equipment[30] and a "National Stalker Reduction Act" to require all states to enact comprehensive anti-stalking legislation, track stalkers, and establish a national domestic-violencedatabase to track violations of civil-protection orders.[31][32]
Protecting kids from alcohol by proposing to limit television advertising of beer and wine between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. and to keep outdoor alcohol advertisements away from schools.[33]
Launching a bipartisan initiative in Massachusetts to fight child hunger that helped lead to an expansion of school breakfast and lunch programs.[34]
In March 1998, following a year of family troubles that included the skiing death of his brother Michael LeMoyne Kennedy, he announced that he planned to retire from the U.S. House, citing "a new recognition of our own vulnerabilities and the vagaries of life."[36] An editorial in The Boston Globe observed that "Kennedy has remained steadfast in his political life to issues and constituencies no poll would have led him to: the poor, the homeless, disadvantaged children, and others swamped in the current tide of prosperity." He served in the U.S. House for six terms, until January 1999. In his final speech on the U.S. House floor, Kennedy delivered "an impassioned plea for unity and forgiveness"[37] in the midst of Congressional debate regarding the proposed articles of impeachment of President Bill Clinton.[38]
After leaving the House of Representatives, Kennedy returned to Citizens Energy. (During Kennedy's terms in the House, it had been run by his brother Michael.) Citizens Energy pursues commercial ventures aimed at generating revenues that, in turn, are used to generate funds that could assist those in need in the U.S. and abroad.[44] It grew to encompass seven separate companies, including one of the largest energy-conservation firms in the U.S. Citizens Energy became one of the U.S.'s first energy firms to move large volumes of natural gas to more than 30 states.[45] As a precursor to market changes under electricity deregulation in the late 1990s, Citizens Energy was a pioneer in moving and marketing electrical power over the power grid.[46][47] In recent years, Kennedy has led the company into the renewable-energy industry, building solar farms along the East Coast[48] and transmission lines[49] to support charitable programs like one giving free solar panels to low-income families in California.[50] In 2019, Citizens Energy announced the completion of one of the largest Low-Income Community Shared Solar projects in the country, funded by its investment in the Sunrise PowerLink Transmission line.[51] Totaling 30 megawatts, the record-breaking California project will provide $500 in energy savings to 12,000 low-income families each year.[52]
Public policy
Since returning to Citizens Energy, Kennedy also has sought to influence energy-related public policy, challenging the Bush administration to invest in energy conservation and efficiency and renewable energy,[53] encouraging Congress to fully fund federal heating assistance programs,[54] proposing that oil-consuming countries work together to balance oil prices against Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) manipulation,[55] and calling for the federal government and major oil companies to use portions of royalties from oil and gas extracted from federal lands and waters to help low-income families with the high price of energy.[56] Kennedy has been criticized for the salaries paid to himself and his wife.[57] In 2012, as CEO of Citizens Energy and related organizations, Kennedy was paid a total of $796,000 in compensation, and his wife was paid an additional $344,000 as Director of Marketing.[58]
Venezuela
Beginning in 2005, Citgo Petroleum Company (Citgo), a wholly owned subsidiary of Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA)—the Venezuelanstate-owned oil company—has been the primary donor of heating oil to Citizens Energy. The Wall Street Journal and others criticized Citizens Energy for continuing its relationship with the Venezuelan government and Venezuelan presidentHugo Chávez, a harsh critic of the United States.[59][60][61] In response, Kennedy and others[62][63] have argued that it is hypocritical to criticize a non-profit organization for accepting oil from Venezuela while numerous other American businesses are profiting from robust trade with Venezuela and at a time when the U.S. government has cut low-income fuel assistance.[64]
Although Citgo donations reportedly dried up in 2015 owing to Venezuela's economic turmoil,[65] the company was reported in 2009 to have donated 83 million gallons of oil over the two previous years, which was used to provide heating assistance to an estimated 200,000 families a year in 23 states.[66]
Kennedy has since turned into a critic of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, the handpicked successor of Chávez,[67] accusing him of "stealing democracy from the people" and calling for Maduro's removal.[68]
Later political considerations
Gubernatorial elections
In 1993, a Boston Globe poll showed Kennedy within one percentage point of popular incumbent William Weld in a hypothetical gubernatorial match-up, prompting prominent state Democrats to try and recruit him for the race.[69] Though no other Democrat was polling near Weld, Kennedy decided to forgo the race and remain in Congress. Mark Roosevelt won the nomination and lost to Governor Weld by over 40 points.
Kennedy was considered the front runner for the governorship of Massachusetts in 1998,[70] but revelations about his personal life led to a tumultuous fall in public opinion polling, and he decided against running.[71]
Kennedy explained in a VFW hall in a working-class corner of Boston that he believed he would never be able to focus his candidacy on issues: "The race will focus on personal or family questions. It is not fair to my family, it is not fair to the people of Massachusetts and it is not the right thing to do."[72]
2010 U.S. Senate election
With the death of his uncle Ted Kennedy on August 25, 2009, Kennedy's name had been mentioned as a possible candidate for his uncle's United States Senate seat representing Massachusetts. In an Associated Press article, Democratic strategist Dan Payne said, "He wouldn't be human and he wouldn't be a Kennedy if he didn't give serious consideration to running for what is known as the 'Kennedy seat' in Massachusetts."[73] However, Kennedy released a statement on September 7 explaining that he would not pursue the seat. The seat eventually went by appointment to Paul G. Kirk and later by election to Republican Scott Brown.
Kennedy (center) attends a wreath-laying ceremony to honor President John F. Kennedy at Arlington National Cemetery, November 2011
On February 22, 1972, Kennedy was on Lufthansa Flight 649 when it was hijacked. Shortly after the inflight movie began during the 747's flight from New Delhi to Athens, five gunmen seized the jet and forced it to land at Aden International Airport, where all hostages were released the following day.[75][76][77]
In August 1973, a Jeep he was driving on Nantucket overturned, fracturing a vertebra of his brother David and permanently paralyzing David's girlfriend, Pam Kelley.[78] The police cited Kennedy for reckless driving and the judge temporarily suspended his driver's license.[1][78] The Kennedy family paid for Kelley's initial medical treatment and contributed modestly to her care during the years following the accident.[79]
Marriages and reversed annulment
On February 3, 1979, Kennedy married Sheila Brewster Rauch, a daughter of banker Rudolph Stewart "Stew" Rauch Jr.,[80] president and then chairman of the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society. On October 4, 1980, the couple had fraternal twin sons, Matthew Rauch "Matt" Kennedy and Joseph Patrick "Joe" Kennedy III. They were legally divorced in 1991.[81]
In 1993, Kennedy asked the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston for an annulment of his marriage to Rauch, claiming he was mentally incapable of entering into marriage at the time of the wedding. An annulment would have rendered the marriage void in the Church. This would have also allowed Kennedy to marry Anne Elizabeth "Beth" Kelly a former staff member of his, in a Catholic ceremony, as well as allow him to continue receiving Holy Communion (which is forbidden for a divorced person who remarries outside of the Church).[82][83] Rauch refused to agree to the annulment; Kennedy married Kelly in a non-Catholic civil ceremony on October 23, 1993.[84]
The Boston Archdiocese initially ruled in favor of the annulment, which Rauch says she discovered only after the fact, in 1996.[82] An Episcopalian, she later wrote a book, Shattered Faith: A Woman's Struggle to Stop the Catholic Church from Annulling Her Marriage, explaining that she was opposed to the concept of annulment because it meant in Catholic theology that the marriage had never actually existed. She also claimed that the Kennedy family influence made it possible to unilaterally "cancel" a 12-year marriage.
Catholic Canon law at the time required a tribunal decision in favor of annulment to be automatically appealed, and the decision was not effective until a second, conforming, sentence was granted. Instead of allowing the appeal to take place in the United States, Rauch appealed directly to the Roman Rota, the highest appellate tribunal of the Catholic Church.[85] The annulment was overturned by the Rota in 2005. Rauch says she was not informed of the decision until 2007, receiving the news from Boston Archdiocese officials.[86] As the first decision was never confirmed, there was no time at which the Church finally declared the marriage to be null or gave Kennedy permission to remarry. Because the Rota was sitting as a second-instance appellate court, Kennedy could appeal against the decision to another Rotal panel.[85][87]
Notes
^Some early sources misidentified him as Joseph P. Kennedy III, assuming he was named for his uncle Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., rather than his grandfather. He clarified the issue during his run for Congress.[2]
^Oppenheimer, Jerry (May 15, 1995). The Other Mrs. Kennedy: An Intimate and Revealing Look at the Hidden Life of Ethel Skakel Kennedy. Macmillan. p. 453.
^Osborne, David (April 1985). "Joe Kennedy Makes a Name for Himself". Mother Jones. p. 20.
^Taraborrelli, J. Randy (2019). The Kennedy Heirs: John, Caroline, and the New Generation - A Legacy of Tragedy and Triumph. St. Martin's Publishing Group. p. 122.
^Dober, Patrick; Callahan, Tom (1998-11-08). "Joe Kennedy's Home Run Against Bias". The Boston Globe.
^Turner, Robert L. (1989-07-02). "Joe Kennedy: the Happy Warrior". The Boston Globe. p. A45.
^"Joseph Kennedy Won't Run in Fall". The Washington Post. March 14, 1998. Because of his efforts, banks now have to disclose racial statistics on mortgage borrowers, a tool the Clinton administration has used to enhance services in minority neighborhoods.
^Harrington, Walt (1993-06-06). "Settling In". The Washington Post (magazine section). p. 32.
^Op-edessay. Flynn, Raymond L.; Kennedy II, Joseph P. (1988-01-25). "Decent, Affordable Housing for All". The New York Times.
^Kurkjian, Stephen (1995-10-13), "U.S. Urged to Probe Business Insurers". The Boston Globe.
^Keller, Jon (1995-02-05). "Joe Kennedy's Clear-Eyed View of How Things Are". The Boston Globe. p. 3.
^Kennedy II, Joseph P. (1995-12-27). "Corporations Rake in Subsidies as Poor, Aged Suffer Cuts". The Boston Globe.
^Pear, Robert (1998-05-10). "House Votes to Overhaul Housing for the Poor". The New York Times.
^Kennedy II, Joseph P. (1998-02-02). "R&D, Engine of Our Growth". Boston Herald.
^Black, Chris (1995-11-25). "Rep. Kennedy Acts to Protect Small Shops". The Boston Globe.
^Sullivan, Paul (1993-01-30). "Kennedy Targets Stalking in New Bill". Boston Herald.
^Kennedy II, Joseph P. (1993-04-25). "It's Time to Give the Courts Legal Tools to Put Stalkers Away". Boston Herald.
^United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America (Volume 110). 1990. p. 10. Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II (D - Mass.) has introduced legislation to pay for the savings-and-loan bailout by taxing corporations and the nation's wealthiest individuals.
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