The contrast with contemporary political science today could not be more stark. Our field largely has ceded presidential biography to journalists and historians, and with the exception of a few academics and the series of Senate books written by Richard Fenno, legislative biography has virtually ceased to exist at all. It is felt in the field as a whole that biographies contribute little to scholarship and that time is better spent researching more important topics. From my standpoint, as someone who has written on a range of academic topics, that conclusion represents a serious loss for political science. In a discipline that changes rapidly, biographies offer the potential for new insight into leadership, political strategies, policymaking, and political dynamics that can contribute to theory-building and hypothesis-testing.

When I wrote my biography of Congressman Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.), the son of U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy,¹ I had two goals. First, I wanted to write a readable account of the political emergence of the next generation of Kennedys in American politics. Few families have had greater impact on twentieth century politics than the Kennedys, and political scientists need to understand how and why the family achieved such prominence. Whether you love or hate them, scholars should recognize the extraordinary impact the Kennedys have had on American public life.

Second, I hoped to educate political scientists about broader lessons raised by the Kennedy phenomenon. In an election year where the leading presidential candidates are Bush, Gore, and Bradley, it is obvious that the politics of celebrity has become an important feature of contemporary politics. With the decline of party, the rise of media-centered elections, the crucial role of money, and the increase in citizen mistrust, Americans have turned to celebrities and legacies to exercise political leadership. With the exception of David Canon's fine book, Actors, Athletes, and Astronauts,² there has been little treatment by political scientists of celebrity as a viable career path for American politicians.

Patrick Kennedy is merely the latest in a long line of rich and famous Americans who have made it into Congress. In recent decades, athletes have become successful politicians, and astronauts and entertainers have won election as public officials. The rapid rise of these individuals in national politics is testimony to the tremendous advantages of fame and wealth in American politics. Today, the combination of high campaign costs, weak political parties, citizen cynicism, and media domination of the political process places a premium on personal fame and wealth.

If celebrity is reshaping American politics, there is no better example of it than Patrick Kennedy. Wealthy and famous, he is the archetype of the legacy politics that has become quite common in America. The son of a prominent Senator and nephew to President John Kennedy and Senator Robert Kennedy, Patrick Kennedy now is head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, one of the leading Democratic national fundraisers, and fifth in line for the Democratic Speakership. A detailed case study of Kennedy's rise to prominence provides important lessons about how our political system functions, what works in election campaigns, how the media cover famous politicians, and the manner in which political institutions are used by adroit politicians.

In my book, Patrick Kennedy: The Rise to Power,³ I use the story of Kennedy's political emergence to explore the use of fame, how prominence affects the manner in which individuals campaign and govern, and how celebrity influences the actions of reporters, donors, and fellow politicians. This study of Kennedy's rise to power from the state legislature to U.S. Congress reveals some surprising lessons. Children of famous politicians do not have an easy route to the top. In his first campaign, Kennedy confronted the entire Rhode Island political establishment. Nearly every public official in the state endorsed Kennedy's legislative opponent. Kennedy would have to face down name-calling, broken windows, and an assortment of dirty tricks to upset the incumbent representative. While in the General Assembly, Kennedy struggled to find his way. It would take a fight of several years against the state's most powerful politician, the Rhode Island Speaker of the House, before Kennedy would triumph.

The story of how Kennedy blossomed is filled with colorful and entertaining characters. For example, the undertaker Kennedy defeated in 1988 hid his election phone banks on the second floor above his funeral parlor so that Kennedy would not realize the scope of his campaign. After he was elected, legislative opponents shipped tapes of Kennedy's halting speeches on the floor of the General Assembly to Boston radio talk show hosts in order to ridicule him publicly. Then there were Patrick's complicated relations with the rest of the Kennedy clan. To win his initial race, Kennedy pioneered a novel campaign technique - using prominent family members such as John Kennedy, Jr., Joseph Kennedy, and his parents Ted and Joan to pose for Polaroid pictures with voters outside polling places on Election Day. It was an effective tactic that drew to the polls scores of gawking voters interested in a celebrity photo.

The most recent episode in Kennedy's life - his election to the U.S. Congress - introduced a new cast of compelling characters, such as Clinton, Gephardt, and Newt Gingrich, and a novel Kennedy survival strategy. When Kennedy entered Congress, he faced a new Republican majority committed to dismantling the very programs identified with the Kennedy name. For two years, he walked a tightrope between attacking Republican extremism on domestic policy and working closely with the Republican majority on the National Security Committee in order to bring military contracts back to his state. It would not be the only time he would use GOP connections to further his political career.

In writing a biography about Kennedy, I argue that there are several lessons that can be drawn about celebrity politics in general and the Kennedy phenomenon in particular. The Kennedys are very good at understanding their strengths as well as their weaknesses. They have the resources and connections to find mentors who guide them through the maze of American politics. They also are adroit at developing innovative political strategies. Along his route to prominence, Patrick Kennedy worked closely with Republicans, carved out his own individual identity independent of his father's, made creative use of ethnic politics, and developed a state-based strategy for national political survival.

Biographies require a delicate balance between telling human interest stories that connect with undergraduates and drawing larger lessons that make points that will be of interest to political scientists. The best books of this genre speak both to the specific and the general. I was fortunate in living in the congressional district of Patrick Kennedy and being a local pollster and political analyst on Rhode Island politics. This home base gave me excellent access to the Kennedy family, political advisors, business associates, outside consultants, staff members, and those who have crossed swords with Kennedy along the way, and allowed me to inform readers with an extraordinary level of detail.

The result is a fascinating tale of how Kennedys are successful politically and how the next generation of Kennedy cousins is entering the center stage of national political life. Using around seventy interviews, unpublished strategy memos and polling data, confidential memoirs, campaign finance data, media coverage, and legislative voting records, I tell the story of how one celebrated family has extended its influence to a new generation.

It remains to be seen how scholars will evaluate the politics of celebrity. For some, the trend toward celebrity politics is dangerous for representative government. Critics claim celebrity substitutes fame for personal accomplishment and widens the gap between leaders and ordinary citizens with whom they have little in common. It is a symbol in a media era of how television creates political prominence based on nothing other than image. Yet in other respects, independent-minded celebrities represent a much-needed way to revitalize American politics. In an era where citizens mistrust those who are in government and have spent their lives cutting deals with other politicians, being wealthy or having a famous name outside of politics enhances credibility with voters.

Regardless of how one feels about political celebrity, legislative biographies deserve a place in political science. Historians often ignore politics and are unable to decipher the questions that are of interest to political scientists. Journalists sometimes fail to draw the larger lessons represented by important political figures. Unless political scientists rediscover the art of the biography, there will continue to be an inadequate understanding of how politicians do their jobs. We often blame reporters and politicians for public mistrust about the political process. Yet we contribute to this lack of understanding by failing to inform knowledgeable observers about how politics works. We are all the poorer for that state of affairs.

Darrell M. West is professor of political science at Brown University and the author of numerous books, including the forthcoming Patrick Kennedy: The Rise to Power. He can be contacted by email at Darrell_West@brown.edu.

1. Darrell M. West, Patrick Kennedy: The Rise to Power (Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, forthcoming 2000).

2. David Canon, Actors, Athletes, and Astronauts (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990).

3. West, 2000.