Kennedy GOP challenger knocked off ballot but still running

By Bill Delaney
CNN Boston Bureau Chief

July 6, 2000
Web posted at: 6:30 p.m. EDT (2230 GMT)

BOSTON (CNN) -- Amid allegations of everything from roughing up two girlfriends to once carrying a concealed kung-fu weapon, it would be easy for Republican Jack E. Robinson to give up on his bid to unseat long-enthroned Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy in Massachusetts this fall.

But Robinson says that won't happen.

Jack E. Robinson (R)

"It's the Kennedy machine at work -- but I'm a tough person. So it hasn't been fun -- these attacks," he said. "But we got over them, and we'll get over this hurdle, and we will be on the ballot, hook or by crook, I guarantee you that."

The most immediate hurdle, however, it that Robinson is off the ballot. Massachusetts authorities disqualified him after excluding dozens of signatures from petitions seeking to put his name before voters. A Boston television station compared signatures on Robinson's petitions with the authentic signatures of registered Republicans, and many of the signatories denied they signed the documents.

The removal of those signatures left him below the 10,000 needed to get on the ballot -- and generated the kind of publicity under which long-odds candidacies typically don't thrive. Robinson is contesting the ballot commission's decision in state Supreme Court, saying overzealous supporters may be responsible.

But he needs an injection of good luck. Earlier this year, while conducting a live radio interview, he even got in a car accident. Besides the allegations of forged petitions, he admits he did once failed to pay a speeding ticket -- nothing else.

"Let's just say that I'll put my driving record against Senator Kennedy's any day," he said -- referring to the 1969 Chappaquiddick accident that left a female campaign worker dead after a car Kennedy was driving left a bridge on Martha's Vineyard and plunged into the water.

Robinson also has had to deny allegations of sexual misconduct raised by a former girlfriend, who once sought a restraining order against him. "It was a lie. And I answered these allegations in court and the judge threw them out," he said.

When asked about the dangerous weapon -- the star-shaped Kung Fu gizmo -- Robinson replied: "Well unfortunately -- I had been at a dinner at a restaurant --- and it ended up in my coat pocket somehow -- I'd never seen one before, haven't seen one since. But the case was dismissed."

Robinson said his run was spurred by Kennedy's refusal to back tax cuts and support for teachers' unions. But at the moment, Kennedy looks like a good bet for re-election.

The state Republican Party is not endorsing Robinson, making the millionaire Harvard law and business school grad perhaps the loneliest candidate in the country.

Robinson does plan to be at the Republican convention in Philadelphia -- an awkward presence, most likely, with his court cases unlikely to be resolved by then.

Still, being a Republican in traditionally Democratic Massachusetts has often been a bit like showing up here at Fenway Park in a Yankees cap: It can get awkward.