POL - Wm. Kennedy Smith (acquitted of rape) to run for Congress?

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Kennedy Smith faces many rivals

July 30, 2001

BY LYNN SWEET SUN-TIMES WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON--With or without a Kennedy in the contest, an open North Side congressional seat is up for grabs.

William Kennedy Smith has been quietly testing the waters for a House race for the seat being vacated by Rep. Rod Blagojevich (D-Ill.), who will announce his run for governor next month.

Smith--the nephew of Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.)--is weighing a political debut either in 2002 or some other time in the near future.

What he must gauge is if Chicago voters will forgive his 1991 acquittal on rape charges.

In the years since a Florida jury acquitted Smith, he has finished his medical education, moved to the North Side of Chicago and launched an international crusade to help victims of land mines.

He is the president of the Center for International Rehabilitation, based at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.

After consulting informally with political advisers, Smith decided to test his viability with focus groups consisting of potential voters, as reported in Sunday's Sun-Times.

As Smith looks at the race, the other main contenders in the March 2002 Democratic primary are jockeying for position. Winning the primary in the heavily Democratic 5th District is tantamount to clinching the November general election.

Bernie Hansen, the 44th Ward alderman and Democratic committeeman, is gearing up for a run and will have the advantage of platoons of precinct captains. If Smith is in the race, ''It will make it awful expensive,'' Hansen said. ''You will have to spend more money.''

Hansen said he doubted if any candidate would directly use the rape trial in a campaign. ''Everybody knows it. You would not have to say a word,'' he said.

Nancy Kaszak, a former state representative, shares some of Hansen's turf, but has her own base, of female and progressive voters.

If Kaszak remains the only woman in the race and faces two or more major male rivals, she will have an advantage.

Kaszak has experience in running for Congress; she lost to Blagojevich--whose father-in-law, Richard Mell, is the 33rd Ward alderman and committeeman--in the 1996 primary.

Rahm Emanuel, a former senior adviser to President Clinton named by Mayor Daley to the Chicago Housing Authority board after he returned to Chicago in 1998, is expected to be a formidable fund-raiser, giving him the resources to run a slick campaign.

Emanuel, who has said he will not run if Hansen is in the race, said he already has commitments for some $325,000.

-- Anonymous, July 30, 2001

Answers

That's Kennedy arrogance for you, thinking you can sweep this filth away if enough time goes by. Of course, it might actually play ok in Chicago. Too bad the woman in the lawsuit was such a bimbo. I think that's why he was acquitted.

-- Anonymous, July 30, 2001

Chic Trib

Kennedy Smith has support in 5th District

July 31, 2001

BY ART GOLAB STAFF REPORTER

The Kennedy name hasn't lost it's magic, at least with Chicagoans living in the North Side district where William Kennedy Smith is considering a run for Congress.

Fifty-three percent of 400 adults questioned in a CBS-2/Chicago Sun-Times survey said they either would strongly support or somewhat support a bid by Smith, a third-generation member of America's most famous political family.

Smith, who was acquitted of rape charges in a sensational 1991 Florida trial, has gone on to become a Chicago doctor who has traveled the world crusading against the use of land mines.

In recent weeks, he has been testing the waters to run for the 5th District seat that Rod Blagojevich (D-Ill.) is expected to vacate in a bid for the governor's mansion.

Smith, 39, found his strongest support among older adults and Hispanics in the poll of 403 voters conducted by Survey USA.

Of respondents 55 and up--old enough to remember the days of Camelot--60 percent strongly or somewhat supported Smith. Among Hispanics, 68 percent strongly or somewhat supported Smith.

But older voters would throw more votes overall to Smith because they make up nearly half the district's adults, whereas Hispanic adults constitute about 7 percent of the district, according to poll figures.

Smith, who is single and has never run for office, has kept a low profile in Chicago, where he is an adjunct instructor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Northwestern University Medical School and the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.

However Smith has built an international reputation as founder and president of Physicians Against Land Mines.

Four other members of the Kennedy family hold state or congressional office.

Overall results of the poll, conducted by Survey/USA, have a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.

-- Anonymous, July 31, 2001


http://www.boston.com/dailynews/213/region/Kennedy_scion_says_he_won_t _ru:.shtml

Kennedy scion says he won't run for Congress in 2002

By Associated Press, 8/1/2001 05:33

CHICAGO (AP) William Kennedy Smith, the nephew of Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, will not run for Congress in 2002, but might seek public office someday, according to a published report.

Smith, 40, a doctor and international leader in helping those who have been injured by land mines, told the Chicago Sun-Times in Wednesday's editions that he considers public service an honor.

''I hope sometime in my life to have that honor and that experience,'' he said.

Smith said his decision not to seek the 5th District House seat held by U.S. Rep. Rod Blagojevich, who is leaving Congress to run for Illinois governor, came in part because of a Sun-Times story Sunday.

The paper reported he was querying voters on whether his televised 1991 trial on charges of raping a woman in Palm Beach, Fla., would affect his ability to serve in the House. Smith was acquitted.

He said he was ''surprised at the level of attention'' the story received. Because it came out early in his deliberation process it was ''difficult to stop what I was doing to give it the time it deserves,'' he said.

Four other Democratic candidates are running for the seat in the predominantly Democratic district, including Rahm Emanuel, an investment banker and former senior adviser to President Clinton; Chicago Alderman Bernie Hansen; former state Rep. Nancy Kaszak; and Pete Dagher, who was an aide in the Transportation Department and special projects manager in the White House during the Clinton administration.

Smith, who is single, has kept a low profile since his acquittal. He specializes in rehabilitation medicine and is the founder of the Chicago-based Physicians Against Land Mines.

In one of the first trials to be broadcast on cable television, Smith, then a medical student, testified that he engaged in consensual sex on a beach with his accuser, Patricia Bowman.

Democratic political consultant Pete Giangreco said Sunday it would be difficult for Smith to escape the association with the trial.

''A lot of people were introduced to him because of this incident,'' Giangreco said. ''First impressions are sometimes lasting impressions. That's difficult to overcome sometimes.''

-- Anonymous, August 01, 2001


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