"Some men see things as they are and say, Why? I dream things that never were and say, Why not?"
Fifty years ago today I was awakened when my oldest brother came charging into the bedroom my sister and I shared. He had stayed up to watch the coverage of the California Primary race and had seen that Sen. Robert F. Kennedy had been shot. He was stunned, and our bedroom was the first bedroom he encountered down the hall. He may have even woken up my parents to tell them the news, since it was so shocking. I was not even a teenager when it happened and the preceding events of 1968 had already made a huge impression on me. I don’t remember if I got up to watch with him or not. The next day was our class picnic, and I remember the mothers and the nuns asking us to pray for Kennedy. It was a grim mood for the adults, especially so soon after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. just two months earlier.
We’ll never know what might have been, had Sen. Kennedy not been shot. I won’t even try to speculate. I will just say that the world could have used his leadership on issues of race and poverty. As a child when he died, I was drawn to the loss his children felt with his violent death.
In recognition of the anniversary of Sen. Kennedy’s death, CBS News produced a segment for their Sunday Morning show. It included an interview with his eldest child, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. In the quote below, she is talking about the post-funeral train trip that would take the Senator and his family to Washington DC for burial at Arlington.
"That train ride was supposed to be three hours, and instead it turned almost seven hours," said Townsend. "Two million people came out. African Americans in Baltimore singing the 'Battle Hymn of the Republic.' Nobody organized this; it was spontaneous.
"What did he have that touched so many people? His love, his courage, and his ability to relate."
Later in the interview she adds this very personal insight. An insight that reminds me that the country may have lost a remarkable leader, but a family lost a father, husband, uncle and son in a very public and violent way.
"It's hard to know exactly what heals. There's pain that lasts for 50 years. It's enormous sadness, enormous sense of loss. I'm not a believer that time heals all wounds, at all; I think the wounds stay for a long time."
The words that open this diary were part of the eulogy that Sen. Ted Kennedy gave at the funeral of his brother, Sen. Kennedy. As powerful as these words are, they’re even more poignant when you listen to the actual audio of the eulogy. www.americanrhetoric.com This link also provides the text of the eulogy. It’s worth listening to, or reading to better recall the profound sense of loss his assassination caused.
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Today is another California primary day, along with several other states. California will likely generate the bulk of the post-election analysis. I think we’ll all be interested in the outcomes of a few Congressional races. Specifically CA-48, CA-49 and CA-39. In these races it’s possible that by having several Democrats on the ballot, they will split the Democrats votes and will be shut out of the top two slots needed to advance to the General Election. Personally, I am interested in the results for the statewide races for Governor, Senator, and Attorney General.
Those Congressional races will have me on pins and needles tonight, though. I don’t want to think about the endless “Dems in Disarray” stories that will undoubtedly be generated if Democrats are shut out of the top two slots in any of these races.
The other states that are holding primaries today are Iowa, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota. I’m not familiar with key match ups in those states, but thankfully, Vox has provided a good summary of all the key primary races to watch tonight. www.vox.com/…
Iowa
Republican Governor Kim Reynolds is seeking election after her appointment in 2017. Her Democratic opponents are labor leader Cathy Glasson, and business owner Fred Hubbell.
Expect health care and Trump’s approval rating to come into play in this race. Reynolds’s signature achievement is probably moving Iowa’s 600,000 Medicaid enrollees into managed care, a privatized version of the program where private health plans administer Medicaid’s benefits. Hubbell wants to reverse that privatization, while Glasson supports a more liberal single-payer option.
Montana
Republicans are selecting a challenger who they hope can beat Sen. Jon Tester in November.
Tester has no Democratic primary challenger, but he’s facing a tough reelection battle in November and is sitting on a substantial war chest to prepare for it. Trump won Montana by 20 points in 2016, and Tester hasn’t exactly made friends with the president lately, so expect Trump to do everything he can to oust the Montana senator.
New Jersey
Sen. Bob Menendez is seeking a 3rd term.
The only reason this general election contest might get interesting in this blue state is that Menendez faced trial last year on corruption charges. Prosecutors say Menendez abused his office to do favors for a wealthy Florida eye doctor in exchange for private jet flights, fancy vacation accommodations, and contributions for his campaign and legal defense fund. The jury failed to agree on a verdict, the prosecution ended with a mistrial, and the Justice Department decided to drop the charges rather than try a second time.
There are also four Congressional Districts that could be big pick-ups for the Democrats should they take these states in November. The districts are: NJ-2, NJ-4, NJ-7, and NJ-11.
New Mexico
The Governorship is up for grabs.
Current Republican Gov. Susana Martinez is term-limited out of the position, giving Democrats an opportunity to turn New Mexico state leadership even more blue. Democrats currently have control of both chambers of the state legislature, so retaking the governor slot would be a major boon for them as New Mexico undergoes a redistricting process following the 2020 census.
Broadly, momentum is in Democrats’ favor. New Mexico voted for Hillary Clinton over Trump by more than 8 points in 2016, and favored President Barack Obama heavily in both election cycles before that.
There’s also an open Congressional district, NM-2.
Pearce, the incumbent Republican representative, has opted out of reelection to run for governor, leaving the field open for fresh faces on both sides of the aisle. While the Second District leans Republican — and voted for Trump by more than 10 points over Hillary Clinton in 2016 — negative sentiment toward the administration and an energized liberal base could give Democrats a shot.
South Dakota
An open Governorship spot has Republicans battling for primary votes, while one Democrat is on the ballot in this very red state.
The Republican primary has gotten close — and bitter — in recent weeks. A member of Congress serving the state’s at-large district since 2011, Noem has higher name recognition. If elected, she’d be the state’s first female governor.
Recent negative ads Jackley and Noem are running about each other reflect the closeness of the race. A recent Mason-Dixon poll found Noem with a 1-point lead over Jackley and concluded she’s doing better with female voters. Candidates don’t have to distance themselves from Trump; the president has a 72 percent approval rating in South Dakota.
Feel free to share your recollections of Sen. Kennedy’s assassination and/or your thoughts and predictions on today’s primary races in the comments.