By Evereth Woodruff 
If history were to be repeated, Eddie Markey would hand off his Senate seat the way it was “handed” off to him.
That was back in 2013 when then Sen. John Kerry vacated the seat upon his appointment by President Barack Obama to become Secretary of State.
Before Kerry officially resigned, however, he gave his friend Markey, who was already a veteran member of the U.S House, a heads up, so that Markey would have an important advantage and easy path to replace him in a special election.
It was also a signal to discourage other Democrats from running.
Markey was able to set his campaign in motion even before Kerry made his announcement official, giving Markey an important edge over whoever would challenge him for Kerry’s seat in a Democrat primary.
That challenger turned out to be fellow U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch of South Boston.
Markey defeated Lynch after Markey was endorsed by Kerry and had the support of the Democrat Senatorial Campaign Committee along with a ton of campaign cash,
Lynch put up a spirited fight, though. He got 230,335 votes, or 43%, to 311,219 votes, or 57%, for Markey.
Markey has been undefeated ever since, and he most notably he beat then U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy III for re-election in 2020. It is the only time a Kennedy has been defeated in Massachusetts.
Now Markey, who will be eighty years old come election day in 2026, is running again, and there is no sign he is going to hand off anything to anybody.
There is no established Democrat running against him and the Republicans have yet to come up with a candidate.
The only Democrat running against Markey so far is Alex Rikleen, an Acton teacher and political novice.
Yet Markey is already energetically campaigning as though he were facing Joe Kennedy all over again.
He has been endorsed by Sen. Elizbeth Warren along with Reps, Richard Neal of Springfield, Lori Trahan of Westford and James McGovern of Worcester.
However, he has yet to be endorsed by three Massachusetts members of the House who would run for his seat in a second were Markey to drop his candidacy.
They are Reps. Ayanna Pressley of Boston, Seth Moulton of Salem and Jake Auchincloss of Newton. Joe Kennedy III could also run again.
Markey could seek to hand off his Senate seat to one of them the way Kerry did for him by first confiding his decision to his hand chosen potential replacement and then by giving the lucky person his endorsement.
It is not likely to happen. Markey has been in public office for so long (fifty-two years) that he knows no other life. Retirement is not an option. Many people believe a seat in the Senate is retirement anyway.
And there currently is no Democrat in the White House to make hm an ambassador should he step aside, the way Joe Biden made Joe Kennedy special envoy to Northern Ireland after Markey beat him.
Nor are there many businesses willing to hire eighty-year-old men. So, he has to run.
Yet, Markey’s decision to run again is holding back a lot of political careers.
Were he not running, it would be like a dam bursting. It would provide younger Democrat Party office holders a chance to move up the ladder and advance their political careers.
Hungry members of Congress like Pressley, Moulton and Auchincloss would give up their House seats in a heartbeat to make the run, which means that there would be a host of candidates, like state representatives, running for their Congressional seats.
Then, in turn, there would be city councilors, select board members and others running for those state legislative seats, and so on. It would be a political tsunami.
Even Joe Kennedy III, looking for something to do, would probably run again.
History does repeat itself. But don’t count on it.
Veteran political reporter Peter Lucas can be reached at: peter.lucas@bostonherald.com
