BOSTON – Former Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II, the eldest son of Robert F. Kennedy, announced Monday he would not run for the U.S. Senate seat held for nearly 50 years by his late uncle, Edward M. Kennedy.

In a statement, the former six-term congressman said he cares about those seeking decent housing, fair wages and health care. But he added, “The best way for me to contribute to those causes is by continuing my work at Citizens Energy Corp.”

The nonprofit organization provides free heating oil to the poor, but Kennedy likely would have faced campaign questions about fuel it received from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez – a persistent U.S. critic.

Yet Kennedy also may have garnered support from the legions of Massachusetts Democrats who long supported his uncle, as well as national followers of his father, who was a U.S. senator from New York when he was assassinated in June 1968 as he sought the Democratic presidential nomination.

“My father called politics an honorable profession, and I have profound respect for those who choose to advance the causes of social and economic justice in elective office,” the 56-year-old Kennedy said.

The decision is expected to widen the field of announced candidates for the late senator’s seat. It became vacant Aug. 25, when Edward Kennedy died of brain cancer at age 77.

Three veteran Massachusetts congressmen – Reps. Michael Capuano, Edward J. Markey and John Tierney – have said they are considering campaigns but would not run against a member of the Kennedy family. The senator’s widow, Vicki, had previously ruled out a campaign.

In a fiery speech Monday morning to a Boston labor breakfast, Capuano sought to distinguish himself from unnamed competitors.

“Everybody loves you today,” the congressman told a crowd of about 400, including Tierney and Markey. “Everybody’s for prevailing wage, everybody’s for (project-labor agreements), everybody’s for this, that and the other thing. Me too. That’s good. But when it comes time to make the tough decisions, that’s when you start to figure who’s with you and who’s not.”

Markey said before addressing the crowd that he was still weighing a race, highlighting his stature as a 33-year member of the House, honorary title as dean of the New England delegation and chairmanship of the House Select Committee for Energy Independence.

“And I have to weigh that in balancing it against how effective I can be as a senator,” he said. “But I will not consider it unless Joe Kennedy does not run.”

Former Rep. Martin Meehan, who is now chancellor of the University of Massachusetts-Lowell but still has nearly $5 million in his campaign account, had also said he would defer to Kennedy, but he has been lukewarm about a campaign even if Kennedy declined to run.

Another Democrat, Rep. Stephen Lynch, said at the breakfast it’s “likely” he will be announcing his candidacy during the next week. The former ironworker, who lives in blue-collar South Boston, said he wanted to wait until after Labor Day.

“I probably won’t fit in in the U.S. Senate, but, I think that, in a lot of cases, the people of Massachusetts don’t want a senator to fit in. They want them to stand out, and I offer through my experience,” Lynch said.

Lynch recalled twice being laid off from shipbuilding and automaking jobs, adding, “I share the experience that a lot of others are feeling right now.”

Attorney General Martha Coakley became the first high-profile Democrat to declare for the seat when she announced her candidacy last week. She wasted little time in flexing her political muscle.

Her supporters lined city intersections for two blocks around the hotel hosting the Greater Boston Labor Council breakfast, testifying to her early organizational advantage in the 90-day sprint to the primary election.

“We’re off and running,” she said as she shook hands outside.

Coakley said she has been especially pleased with her fundraising since her announcement speech last Thursday, though she was not sure precisely how close she is to her goal of raising $1 million during the first two weeks of her candidacy.

“I knew we’d be able to raise the money,” she said. “Now I know we will.”

One prominent Republican, former Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, announced Sunday she would not run. But state Sen. Scott Brown said he is formally “testing the waters” under federal election law. That provision allows him to raise and spend up to $5,000 assessing a campaign. He expects to announce a decision Thursday or Friday.

The 16-year municipal and state official has also been in the military for 29 years, most recently in the Massachusetts National Guard as a lieutenant colonel in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps. His eldest daughter, Ayla, gained national prominence in 2006 as a Hollywood finalist on TV’s “American Idol.”

“There’s a guy in the White House who’s cut a somewhat similar path: He was a state senator, a U.S. senator and now he’s president,” Brown said in an interview.

BOSTON  – Attorney General Martha Coakley announced Thursday she will run as a Democratic candidate in the special election to succeed the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.

The 20-year prosecutor said she can continue to be “an effective voice for the people of Massachusetts.”

Kennedy died last week of brain cancer at age 77.

Coakley said at a news conference the state has had a “crisis of confidence” following Kennedy’s death and she wants to pick up his mantle.

“We’ve depended on him here in the Commonwealth and in Washington, and we will miss his strength and leadership and his sense of humor. As some have noted, no one can fill his shoes, but we must strive to follow in his footsteps,” she told supporters at a downtown Boston hotel.

Coakley sidestepped a question from reporters whether she favored the changing state law to allow the governor to appoint an interim senator, as Kennedy had requested in a letter before his death. Legislators hold a hearing on the matter next week.

“For me, personally, I am fully focused on the race,” she said, adding she trusted legislators “will make the right decision.”

The 56-year-old Coakley becomes the most prominent candidate to officially declare. Several others are waiting for Kennedy’s nephew, former Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II, to decide if he will run.

Coakley said in response to a question she decided to commit to the race without waiting to see if a Kennedy family member would run because of the senator’s had declared, in his letter seeking an interim appointment, the state needs strong and effective representation in Washington.

In a follow-up interview with The Associated Press, she said:
- Growing up in the Vietnam era has made her wary of President Barack Obama getting dragged into a protracted military engagement in Afghanistan, but “I trust him for now.”

- She has focused on health care cost containment as attorney general, since Massachusetts has the nation’s first universal health insurance law, and is in favor of it being included any overhaul law the president signs. She also said a so-called “public option” for providing government-sponsored insurance should be considered.

- She dismissed as “frivolous” a Massachusetts Republican Party complaint that she used $24,000 in state campaign money to pay Washington-based consultants as she considered a federal campaign. She said all her actions have been in compliance with state and federal ethics laws.

Coakley told her supporters she decided to run “because government should work well and it has to work for everyone,” adding that the performance of government “has been in some ways disheartening and discouraging.”

“I believe now is the time to move beyond the idea of, well, `It’s good enough for government work,’ and demand a new standard of excellence. And I know that I need to prove to voters across the commonwealth that I am the best candidate and that I would be the best new senator from Massachusetts,” Coakley said.

Coakley described her humble roots in western Massachusetts and her career as a prosecutor, both as Middlesex District Attorney in a large district that includes populous suburbs of Boston, and since, 2007, as the state’s attorney general.

“Now, with your help, I hope to bring my experience to Washington,” she said.

She did not overtly highlight her status as the state’s top female elected official.

Other potential Democratic candidates include U.S. Reps. Michael Capuano and Stephen Lynch. Potential Republican candidates include former Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey and state Sen. Scott Brown.

Former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling is considering an independent campaign.

Coakley said his candidacy “would be fascinating” and she supports anyone entering the race.

BOSTON  – Former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling says he has “some interest” in running for the late Edward M. Kennedy’s Senate seat.

The longtime Republican supporter wrote Wednesday on his blog that while his family and gaming company are priorities, he does have some interest in a campaign.

He says doing the required work to become a candidate would mean “many, many things would have to align themselves.”

Kennedy was a Democrat. Schilling lives in suburban Boston and is a registered independent. He campaigned for President George W. Bush in 2004 and Sen. John McCain in 2008.

Kennedy died last week at age 77 of a brain tumor.

WASHINGTON – Another Kennedy just might occupy the Kennedy seat in the Senate.

Amid the emotional public outpouring over the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy, talk of a successor has focused on his widow, Victoria Reggie Kennedy, and his nephew, Joseph Kennedy II, the 56-year-old former congressman who could return to politics after a decade’s absence.

“Even though he’s emotionally drained right now, he can’t help but be moved by the enormous flood of affection and respect from all over the country,” said veteran Democratic strategist Dan Payne. “He wouldn’t be human and he wouldn’t be a Kennedy if he didn’t give serious consideration to running for what is known as the ‘Kennedy seat’ in Massachusetts.”

Kennedy would be an early favorite if he decides to run, likely discouraging other Democrats who might be reluctant to oppose a Kennedy so close to the senator’s death. Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick on Monday set a date of Jan. 19 for a special election to fill Kennedy’s seat. The primary will be Dec. 8.

There have been few clues about Kennedy’s plans and he has declined comment through his spokesman, Brian O’Connor. Kennedy family sources have indicated that Victoria Kennedy is not interested in running.

Within days of Edward Kennedy’s death, jockeying for the first open Senate seat in Massachusetts in 25 years intensified.

Democrats who might run are Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, and Reps. Stephen Lynch, Michael Capuano and Edward Markey. Former Rep. Martin Meehan, now chancellor of the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, has $4.8 million in his federal campaign account, the largest sum of any potential candidates.

Among the possible Republican candidates are Cape Cod businessman Jeff Beatty, former White House chief of staff Andrew Card, former Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, former U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan and Chris Egan, former U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Cooperation and Development.

Grooming family members for plum political posts is something of a Kennedy family tradition. In 1962, Edward Kennedy won the Senate seat that his brother, John, held before winning the presidency in 1960. The Kennedys helped arrange the appointment of John’s old roommate, Benjamin A. Smith, to hold the seat until Edward Kennedy turned 30 and was legally old enough to run for the Senate.

Joe Kennedy is the eldest son of the late Sen. Robert Kennedy. He was elected to the House in 1986 and served six terms before retiring. He works to provide low-cost heating oil to the poor through Boston-based Citizens Energy Corp, a charity he founded years ago. He is a visible figure across the state, appearing in TV ads touting his oil program for the poor.

Kennedy’s public image was tarnished in 1997 after his former wife, Sheila Rauch Kennedy, published a book titled “Shattered Faith.” In the book, she accused him of trying to bully her into agreeing to an annulment of their marriage.

Friends say Kennedy, who enjoys fishing in his boat off Cape Cod, has been content with his life away from politics. He has balked at opportunities to run for governor since leaving Congress.

The vaunted Kennedy name, he also knows, is no longer a sure thing in politics.

Caroline Kennedy bungled her bid for a New York Senate seat earlier this year. Joe Kennedy’s sister, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, served two terms as lieutenant governor of Maryland but lost her bid for governor in 2002.

But the prospect of an open Senate seat and the chance to extend the family political dynasty could be powerful motivation.

“Even more so now that Ted is gone, Joe would be seen as the last figure in the dynasty,” Payne said. “There would be people not just in Massachusetts, but all over the country who will urge him on.”

Kennedy has a reputation as an exuberant campaigner. Polls show he is among the state’s most popular figures, and he is able to raise a lot of money in a short time, owing to his family’s vast political network.

“The mouthful of those gleaming white teeth, that booming, boisterous voice and then you have all those little old ladies who just want to touch him, shake his hand,” said Payne. “When he turns to shake somebody’s hand, it’s like someone turned on a beacon.”

OAK BLUFFS, Mass. – The White House says President Barack Obama is not going to referee groups who are using Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s death to push for an overhaul of the nation’s health care system.

White House spokesman Bill Burton on Thursday said that now is not the time to discuss the political implications of Kennedy’s death. But Burton says Obama isn’t going to try to police how activists use the Massachusetts Democrat’s memory to advance proposed changes to health care system. Kennedy died on Tuesday in nearby Hyannis Port, Mass. Obama plans to leave his vacation here on Martha’s Vineyard to deliver a eulogy.

NORTH CAROLINA — State Rep. Larry Womble first met Sen. Ted Kennedy in the early 1960s on one of Kennedy’s swings through North Carolina as he helped his brother, John F. Kennedy, run for president.

“He made an impression on me as one who wanted to make America try to live up to everything it is, or could be,” said Womble, D-Forsyth, adding that he was impressed with the dignity and respect that the Kennedy brothers showed to everyone they met.

Across the state yesterday, people paused to remember Ted Kennedy, who came through North Carolina in the early 1960s as the handsome son of a famous family, and who returned in 1988 for the presidential debate at Wake Forest University as a seasoned senator.

The Kennedys gave people hope, Womble said. They made you think that they could get things done. And even through their scandals, they reminded us that people are human.

“It was a certain aura, a mystique,” Womble said. “Just being in the presence of people like that. Just being in the same room was enough for someone like me.”

Maya Angelou of Winston-Salem said she never met Kennedy, but she admired him as a young man who grew into his family legacy, a rich man who spoke for the voiceless, and a flawed man who nevertheless remained in search of an ideal.

Angelou, a nationally known poet, writer and performer, said that the likes of Kennedy will not be seen again.

“He’s such a fighter, and he reminds us all of the time of who we can be,” she said. “Whether we’re white or black or male or female, he reminds us that we really are Americans.”

Though the Kennedys had wealth, education and advantages on their side, Kennedy had to grow into his role as a legislative lion. And that was part of his greatness, she said.

In taming his demons and grappling with his place in his influential family, Kennedy went on to write hundreds of bills that became law, she said, and he spoke for the homeless, the weak, the young and the sick.

For James Hunder, the president of the Liberian Organization of the Piedmont, Kennedy’s death is a blow. The organization works to advance educational, cultural and social opportunities for those with Liberian ties.

Kennedy supported immigration reform that would help Liberians stay in America, and he pressured the U.S. government to suspend aid to Liberia during the country’s civil war, said
Hunder, who has several letters that Kennedy wrote to him about the Liberian cause. Even though Kennedy likely did not write the letters himself, Hunder said, something about him and his character comes through.

“This man – there’s just something special about him,” he said. “I believe he’s a God-fearing man and a humanitarian. He’s very concerned about peace and tranquility in all parts of the world.”

Allan Louden, a communications professor at Wake Forest University, said that as a communicator, Kennedy had a mixed record.

Kennedy once fumbled an interview with newsman Roger Mudd. Kennedy didn’t have a good answer when Mudd asked why he wanted to be president, but the senator could also soar to eloquent heights, Louden said, as he did during a speech at the Democratic Convention in 1980.

Kennedy ended his speech, saying, “For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.”
He could have retired after his presidential hopes were dashed in 1980, but he was willing to return to the Senate.

“I think he earned his stripes in the Senate,” Louden said.

BOSTON  – Mourners gathered Thursday at both ends of a 70-mile route that was to carry the body of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy from the Cape Cod home where he spent his final days to the presidential library bearing the name of one of his slain brothers.

The late senator’s loved ones began arriving shortly before noon for a private Mass at the family compound. Among those heading in were his nieces Caroline, daughter of former President John F. Kennedy, and Maria Shriver, daughter of his late sister Eunice.

After the Mass, a motorcade was scheduled to leave for Boston and pass sites that were significant to the senator on the way to the library, which he helped develop. His body will lie in repose there until Friday, a Senate office statement said. Austin Howe, 15, a high school student from Laurel, Md., came with his 46-year-old father, Scott Howe, to see the Boston library and joined about 20 others before it opened its doors Thursday morning. Father and son planned to pay their respects to Kennedy after the statesman’s body arrived in the afternoon.

“He is someone who made a difference,” Austin Howe said.

“This is a person who served the people of Massachusetts and served the people of the United States.”

Trudy Murray, 86, a native of Ireland who later lived in England, said Kennedy helped her and her family get visas when they moved to the United States in 1969.

“I loved Ted Kennedy. I cried yesterday when I put on the TV and saw that he had passed away,” said Mullaney, a retired nurse who now lives in Brockton.

“He made his mistakes, but I don’t even want to hear them. I forgive all of them because he was such a good man,” she said.

At the end of a barricaded road leading to the Cape Cod compound, a bouquet of white and yellow lilies lay on the lawn of David Nylan’s vacation rental, and a U.S. flag flew at half-staff in Kennedy’s memory.

Nylan, 38, of Malden, said people have stopped near his house to leave flowers since Kennedy died Tuesday at age 77 after battling brain cancer. Some have asked Nylan and friends who are sharing the house to lead them down the road to view the Kennedy house.

“The Kennedys and Hyannis and the Cape, they just kind of go hand in hand,” he said. “They’re just a great family from around here, and people respect what they’ve done in office, and the good things they’ve done.”

“Of course, they’ve had some black marks against them, but who hasn’t?” he said.

On Main Street in downtown Hyannis, flags, flowers and personal notes lay at the base of a flagpole outside the John F. Kennedy Museum, where about two dozen people gathered.

Someone had placed an old Kennedy campaign sign with a new inscription: “God bless Ted, the last was first,” referring to his ascension to political greatness after the untimely deaths of his two older brothers.

Several enlarged photos depicted events in Kennedy’s life – meeting with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., reading to a schoolgirl. A rosary hung over a picture of Kennedy standing in his office.

Plans are being finalized for a private memorial service at the presidential library Friday evening and for the funeral Mass on Saturday morning at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica – commonly known as the Mission Church – in Boston’s Mission Hill neighborhood. President Barack Obama is scheduled to speak at the funeral.

All of the living former presidents will also attend the funeral, said a person familiar with the arrangements who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release details.

Shortly before the Mass, 44 sitting senators and 10 former senators will be among a group of approximately 100 dignitaries who will pay their respects to Kennedy at the library before making their way to the cavernous basilica, built in 1878.

Included in the group is former U.S. Sen. Birch Bayh, of Indiana, who pulled Kennedy from the wreckage of a small plane that crashed near Springfield, Mass., in June 1964. The pilot and a legislative aide were killed, and Kennedy suffered a broken back. Kennedy’s favorite song, “The Impossible Dream” from the musical “Man of La Mancha,” will be played at one of the services, according to the person familiar with the arrangements.

Thursday’s motorcade is expected to go by St. Stephen’s Church, where his mother, Rose, was baptized and her funeral Mass celebrated; cross the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, the Boston park that he helped create and that is named after his mother; and pass historic Faneuil Hall, where Boston Mayor Thomas Menino will ring the bell 47 times, once for each year Kennedy served in the Senate.

Kennedy will be buried Saturday evening near his slain brothers – former President Kennedy and former Sen. Robert F. Kennedy – at Arlington National Cemetery in northern Virginia.

BOSTON – Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick supports changing state law to allow him to appoint an interim successor to Sen. Edward Kennedy’s seat.

Unlike most states, a successor to a vacant U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts is chosen by special election five months after the opening, not appointed by the governor.

In a recent letter to lawmakers, Kennedy asked that the law be changed to allow the governor to appoint someone during the course of the election – provided that person pledges not to run for the seat.

In an interview Wednesday on WBUR-FM, Patrick called the proposal “entirely reasonable” and said he would sign the bill if it reached his desk.

Legislative leaders have not said if they support the idea.

President Obama comments on death of Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy:

Michelle and I were heartbroken to learn this morning of the death of our dear friend, Senator Ted Kennedy.

For five decades, virtually every major piece of legislation to advance the civil rights, health and economic well being of the American people bore his name and resulted from his efforts.

I valued his wise counsel in the Senate, where, regardless of the swirl of events, he always had time for a new colleague.  I cherished his confidence and momentous support in my race for the Presidency.  And even as he waged a valiant struggle with a mortal illness, I’ve profited as President from his encouragement and wisdom.

An important chapter in our history has come to an end. Our country has lost a great leader, who picked up the torch of his fallen brothers and became the greatest United States Senator of our time.

And the Kennedy family has lost their patriarch, a tower of strength and support through good times and bad.

Our hearts and prayers go out to them today–to his wonderful wife, Vicki, his children Ted Jr., Patrick and Kara, his grandchildren and his extended family.