The Bidens, and six other political dynasties in the making

• Tennessee lawyer and businessman Mike McWherter is taking a run at the governor’s mansion, where his father, Gov. Ned McWherter, served from 1987 to 1995. His campaign website promises that “Mike will follow the examples of his father, former Governor Ned McWherter, and Governor Phil Bredesen by standing up for working families and applying his common-sense business experience to State Government.”

Family ties not always helpful

Being a son or a daughter of a prominent politician does not always make someone a shoo-in. “Some famous names don’t last for long,” says Senate historian Donald Ritchie.

Franklin Roosevelt Jr. served in the House of Representatives from 1949 to 1955, but lost his bid to be the Democratic
Party’s nominee for New York governor. And when House majority leader Richard Armey (R) of Texas announced his retirement in 2002, his son, Scott lost his primary election bid to replace him.

“There’s historical precedent for family dynasties going back to John Adams and John Quincy Adams, but what you have now that you didn’t have decades ago is personal campaign organizations in place of standard party organizations,” says John Pitney, a political scientist at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, Calif.

The Kennedy model

“The Kennedys pioneered an ongoing Kennedy organization – a loose network of supporters who can come together to form a campaign. A lot of politicians have that in some form or another, and it makes it easy to switch from father or mother to the son or to the daughter,” he adds.

Vice President Biden’s appearance today in Dover, Del., at the homecoming of the Army National Guard’s 261st Signal Brigade, including son Beau, may be been Act 1 in such a family transition.

Sen. Ted Kaufman (D) of Delaware, a longtime aide to Joe Biden and current holder of what was Biden's Senate seat, says he will not run in 2010.

-----

Another Biden for Senate?

If Joseph "Beau" Biden III does run for the US Senate, he will start mostly with positives and some negative. Click here to read more about them.

-----

Follow us on Twitter.

Previous

1 | 2