Kennedy seeking clear run in '06

[ckramer]

He's raising funds to stem challenge

By Frank Phillips, Globe Staff | February 20, 2005

Although his political account bulges with $4.7 million in cash and he has no opponent in sight, US Senator Edward M. Kennedy is on a fund-raising rampage from coast to coast, a campaign that Democratic supporters say is designed to leave him without a Republican opponent for the first election in his four decades in the Senate.

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Go Teddy Go!

[PROGRESSIVE1]

1. Go Ted Go!!!!

Now, that's a REAL AMERICA!!!

[MelissaB]

2. More

>>>snip

The Kennedy fund-raising bandwagon comes to Boston March 4, when the senator and his family are throwing a birthday party for him expected to raise at least $500,000. Kennedy, who is turning 73, is pressing the state's Democratic establishment for the event that will hit donors up for a minimum $1,000 donation.

But the birthday party is only a small part of Kennedy's travels across America as he attempts to build an $8 million campaign fund by the end of this year. A similar $1,000-a-head birthday fund-raiser is scheduled next week in Washington, helping Kennedy raise close to $500,000 more, aides say.

He just returned last weekend from a swing through California, where he held a series of events that yielded several hundred thousand dollars. In October, a fund-raising party in New York City raised him another several hundred thousand dollars.

>>snip

''Picking on the most popular Democrat in Massachusetts is not where we would put our first priority," said Darrell Crate, chairman of the state Republican Party. ''Nobody gets a free pass, but it's not lost on me he's a very popular guy. He's our blue-state fixture."

I agree! Go Teddy! Go!