Kerry sails to reelection over little-known challenger

(David L. Ryan/Globe Staff)

Kerry and his wife, Teresa, celebrated tonight at the Fairmont Copley Plaza.

By John C. Drake, Globe Staff

Four years after coming up short in his bid for the presidency, John F. Kerry settled today for a return trip to the United States Senate, easily defeating a little-noticed GOP challenger to earn a fifth term.

"I am humbled to receive the support of voters from Williamstown to Provincetown and every city and town in between, and I promise to continue to prove worthy of your confidence in me over the next six years," Kerry said in a statement released soon after the polls closed. "I have always been honored to represent the people of Massachusetts, and I can't wait to return to Washington with my friend Ted Kennedy by my side and continue to deliver for you and your families."

The race between Kerry and Jeffrey K. Beatty, a counterterrorism expert, never gained much traction, with the incumbent focusing much of his political might on helping Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama win New Hampshire.

And even before the first vote was cast, speculation had already turned to how much of his term Kerry would actually serve, with both Beatty and Kerry's Democratic primary opponent suggesting he was pining for a Cabinet post should Obama win the presidential race.

Beatty told supporters gathered in a hotel ballroom in Westborough tonight that he already had spoken with Kerry by phone.

"We've accomplished a great deal," Beatty told the crowd of about 50 supporters. "We've seen a coming-out of a movement that represents the majority of our citizens. We've reached a million people tonight. We just need to reach the rest.”

Tufts political science professor Jeffrey Berry said Kerry never viewed his Republican opponent as a serious challenge.

"I think John Kerry found Jeff Beatty to be nothing more than an irritant," Berry said. "He knew the election was a sure thing, and his focus is on larger career issues than this taken-for-granted election."

Phyllis Williams, a 53-year-old Kerry supporter who voted at Roxbury's Washington Park, said she was sticking with Kerry, despite some concerns about his record. "I support Kerry even though I was very upset that he voted for the war in Iraq," she said. "I could have strangled him for that."

But Michael Dirlinger, a 33-year-old Beatty supporter voting in Westborough, said it was time for a change. "I"m not very impressed with John Kerry, and I'm a definite believer in fresh blood," Dirlinger said. "I don't think John Kerry has any new ideas."

The Associated Press called the race for Kerry shortly after the polls closed at 8 p.m.

With a victory, Kerry will in all likelihood be positioned to become the state's senior senator in at least two years with US Senator Edward M. Kennedy suffering from brain cancer and unlikely to seek reelection in 2010.

Beatty, 56, brought both military and national security expertise to the race, but was forced to focus his campaign on economic issues as the financial crisis pushed terrorism and the Iraq war out of the spotlight. Beatty said his ownership of counterterrorism consulting firm Total Security Services International showed he had a small-business owner's sensibility for the economic woes of the middle class. He contrasted that with the Kerry family's personal wealth and suggested Kerry owned a financial stake in some of the same companies whose failure hastened the economic meltdown, including insurance giant AIG.

Kerry denied personal financial concerns ever influenced his actions on Capitol Hill.

Like Kerry, Beatty is an Army veteran with a Purple Heart. Kerry earned his during the Vietnam War, while Beatty earned one for injuries he suffered during the 1983 rescue of American medical students from Grenada. Beatty touted a record of predicting terror attacks, including an early suggestion that the Atlanta Olympics was vulnerable to a package bomb attack.

But Beatty never amassed enough of a fund-raising war chest to force Kerry to compete vigorously for the seat, political experts said. Beatty raised nearly $2 million from GOP donors nationwide but the vast majority of the haul went to the coffers of direct mail firm Response America, which coordinated the fund-raising. That left him with precious little to air television ads statewide or invoke fear in an incumbent with $5 million to spend.

Beatty won the Republican nomination without opposition after Jim Ogonowski, the brother of a pilot who died in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the preferred candidate of several top Massachusetts Republicans, failed to collect enough signatures to qualify for the primary ballot. The cash-strapped state party could offer little help and the National Republican Senatorial Committee largely ignored the race.

"It's yet another indicator of the total infirmity of the state Republican Party," said MIT political scientist Charles Stewart. "You would think ... the Republicans at least could marshal the resources to take on a senator who is not affectionately received by the electorate, who is seen as being a bit aloof, and shares the politics of the state but is a bit vulnerable."

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