The Kennedys

It is currently being said that when Representative Patrick Kennedy (my Congressman at school!) leaves office this January, it will be the first time no Kennedy has held a federal elected office in over 60 years. The date people would mention is January 3rd, 1947, the date John Fitzgerald Kennedy took his seat as the Representative of Massachusetts' 11th district. This is factually incorrect, totally 100% wrong.

The supposed chronology is this: John Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946, 1948, and 1950, and then to the Senate in 1952 and 1958. Then he was elected President in 1960. Edward Kennedy was elected Senator from Massachusetts in 1962, 1964, 1970, 1976, 1982, 1988, 1994, 2000, and 2006, dying in 2009. Patrick Kennedy was elected Representative from Rhode Island in 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, and 2008, and will leave office in January. But there's a problem with all of this.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was a Representative from January 3rd, 1947 through January 3rd, 1953, when he took office as a United States Senator. He was inaugurated as President on January 20th, 1961, the usual date for Presidential inauguration. But he resigned the Senate on December 22nd, 1960: there was a gap of 29 days when John F. Kennedy held no elected office. Presumably this early resignation was designed to give Benjamin Smith, the seat-warmer who gave way to Ted Kennedy in '62, a month extra seniority. But the fact remains that the Kennedy Era only lasted continually for just under 50 years, not the 63 being commonly advertised. A trivial point, perhaps, but one doesn't like it when people get things wrong.