Decision keeps Mass. politicos stuck in their seats

WASHINGTON -- When a presidential contender falls back into the Senate, the reverberations are felt in the halls of Congress and the state Legislature, as Massachusetts politicos were reminded yesterday.

The decision by Senator John F. Kerry not to seek the presidency in 2008 does not just curtail the senator's career; it thwarts the ambitions of a slew of federal and state lawmakers hoping to move up a notch on the political ladder.

Congressmen who had been tempted to run for Kerry's seat, had the senator decided to run for president or retire from the Senate, are now stuck in their House jobs. State lawmakers, meanwhile, won't have the chance to run for open congressional seats that might have been vacated when their colleagues on the federal payroll left to try for Kerry's post.

"If John had left the Senate, it certainly would have set off a game of musical chairs. Now that he's not running, I think most people will stay where they are and wait," said Philip W. Johnston , chairman of the Massachusetts Democratic Party.

Since Massachusetts' entire congressional delegation is considered safe in their seats -- some had no major-party opponent in the last election -- the only way an ambitious Democrat can get to Washington is to wait for one of the sitting lawmakers to retire or run for an other office.

"Upward mobility is a lot more difficult in a state where one party is so dominant," Johnston said.

During the 2004 convention, several members of Massachusetts' congressional delegation were flirting brazenly with the idea of running for Kerry's seat, if the senator ended up in the White House. Democratic Representatives Edward J. Markey of Malden, Barney Frank of Newton, Martin T. Meehan of Lowell, and Stephen F. Lynch of Boston started lining up potential donors in the hopes of replacing Kerry as the Bay State's junior senator.

Because candidates cannot run for both the House and Senate at the same time, the maneuvers would have opened up as many as four House seats -- enabling state lawmakers to compete for the jobs.

State Senator Steven A. Baddour , Democrat of Methuen, was considered a likely contender for Meehan's seat, had the congressman left to run for an other office. That, in turn, would have freed up Baddour's job for such potential replacements as Democratic state Representatives Brian S. Dempsey , of Haverhill, Barbara A. L'Italien of Andover, and Michael A. Costello of Newburyport.

Other would-be contenders include former state representative Arthur Broadhurst of Methuen and former Haverhill mayor James Rurak.

But with the well-financed Kerry ready to seek a fifth term -- and senior Senator Edward M. Kennedy recently elected to a ninth term -- all those political careers are at least partly on hold.

"The effect is to put the Democratic leadership in a status quo situation," said Scott Harshbarger , a former Massachusetts attorney general who also flirted with a possible Senate run had Kerry been elected president. "That's not always bad , [but] you are losing the opportunity to have new people, new faces become involved at all levels of state and federal offices -- as well as what it does to enliven and energize the party and the activists."

The intense interest in Kerry's seat dating from 2004 began to wane when Democrats won control of the US House in November. House Democrats who had been quashed by the majority Republicans for 12 years were suddenly offered powerful chairmanships that would allow them to have an impact they had not enjoyed in more than a decade.

Meehan, for one, professed yesterday to being "excited" at the prospect of remaining in the House and chairing the Armed Services subcommittee on oversight and investigations.

"I think it's a great opportunity to hold the Bush administration accountable," he said. Meehan, who annoyed many of his colleagues when he declined to pass out some of the nearly $5 million he had in his campaign chest to assist poorer challengers, said he plans to hang onto his money.

His colleagues and political observers said the representative had raised the cash only in case he ran for Senate, but Meehan noted that the average competitive House race costs $3 million to $5 million.

Frank, now the chairman of the influential Financial Services Committee, had already announced that he would not seek Kerry's Senate seat. And Markey, whose recent appointment to head a special committee on global warming has put him in a key role in environmental policy, said he isn't eager to give up the chance he now has to deal with climate change.

"I was disappointed for the country" that Kerry will not run for president in 2008, Markey said, but not for himself. "I am not interested in running for the Senate."