In Massachusetts, hopefuls clutch at Kennedy aura

BOSTON (Reuters) – How do you follow a legend?

Four Democratic hopefuls are vying to fill the shoes of the late U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, such beloved shoes that many voters can't imagine anyone filling them.

"All the candidates are trying to latch onto the mantle of Kennedy," said Thomas Whalen, political historian at Boston University. "They seem like political Pygmies trying to replace a giant."

In this liberal New England state, the winner of the four-way tussle for the Democratic nomination on Tuesday will almost certainly win the general election in January. Massachusetts last elected a Republican senator almost four decades ago.

And in debates and campaign ads, three of the four Democrats have tried hard to latch onto the legacy of Kennedy, who died in August of brain cancer at age 77.

Kennedy spent almost 47 years in the Senate, where he became one of the most powerful U.S. lawmakers and a hugely influential voice in liberal politics. He championed greater government spending on healthcare and education and was an important voice in labor and civil rights issues.

Candidate Stephen Pagliuca, a businessman and co-owner of the Boston Celtics NBA basketball team, said he decided to run because "Senator Kennedy would have wanted me to."

Alan Khazei, co-founder of the national service program City Year, invoked the "Ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country" passage from John F. Kennedy's 1961 presidential inaugural address in one of his ads.

And U.S. Representative Mike Capuano compared his experience in Congress, bringing jobs and money to his home district to Ted Kennedy's decades of Washington influence.

The odd man out is the woman in the race -- state Attorney General Martha Coakley, who leads in most polls.

Coakley shares Kennedy's liberal positions and has vowed to make healthcare reform a priority, but has put less emphasis on the Kennedy legacy than the other candidates.

Whalen said it would be "telling" if Kennedy is replaced by a woman, since an appeal to female voters helped lift his brother John F. Kennedy to the presidency and propelled the family's political dynasty into high gear.

VOTERS DISTRACTED

But voter turnout will likely to be low in the December 8 primary after a short, lackluster campaign.

"Voters are distracted by a lot of things in December. The holidays; the weather. There are a lot of reasons not to vote. At least a week ago, a lot of people were undecided, and some of those people will take a pass," said Kay Schlozman, professor of political science at Boston College.

Still, pipe fitter Michael Morrill, eating turkey chili at a South Boston diner, said he was keen to vote for a successor to the man who was known as the lion of the Senate.

"How can you not vote? It's to replace a very important person in our history," said Morrill, 52, of Billerica, Massachusetts. "You're never going to really replace him. He was an icon."

A recent Boston Globe poll showed 40 percent of people felt it "very important" for a candidate to share Kennedy's values, although few listed that as the most important issue -- well behind the economy, job creation and healthcare reform.

With Kennedy gone, many residents feel than an era that started more than 60 years ago with JFK's election to the House of Representatives, is over. The state has been a political powerhouse for decades, home to the late House Speaker Thomas "Tip" O'Neill and a cluster of presidential candidates in addition to the Kennedys.

Now, Whalen said, "Massachusetts really is becoming a backwater in national politics."

Joseph P. Kennedy II, a former U.S. congressman and the son of Robert Kennedy, mulled a run for his uncle's old seat but decided against it.

"From 1952 on, when John Kennedy ran for the Senate, the Kennedys built up a separate political machine from the Democratic Party in Massachusetts. But now that machine has gone to rust," Whelan said.

Boston College's Schlozman said criticisms that the candidates were unworthy successors to Ted Kennedy were unfair.

"If anyone expected we would pull another Ted Kennedy out of the hat, they were mistaken," she said. "There's no state, that if it had a seat vacated by a Ted Kennedy, would find another Ted Kennedy lining up in the queue."

(Editing by Mark Egan and Eric Beech)