By Jonathan Friedman
Associate Editor

November 4, 2014 -- More than just a county supervisor seat is on the line today for Bobby Shriver. The outcome of the former Santa Monica mayor’s race against Sheila Kuehl will determine if he remains among the many Kennedys who have a perfect election record or if he joins his first-cousin Kathleen as the only members of the American dynasty to lose in a general election.

When Shriver was elected to his first of two terms on the City Council in 2004, he continued a legacy of a family’s near perfect election record begun by his great-grandfather P.J. 120 years earlier.

There have been 49 general elections featuring a member of the Kennedy family, and in all but two cases, the Kennedy was the winner. Both losses were by Kathleen Townsend, daughter of Robert Kennedy. This record gives the Kennedy family a winning percentage of nearly 96 percent.

One could argue there has been at least one other Kennedy family defeat in a general election, with Bobby Shriver’s father Sargent losing a vice presidential bid in 1972. But the elder Shriver was not a blood relative of the Kennedys, so his defeat is not included in this analysis.

The first taste of general election defeat came for the Kennedy family in 1986 when Townsend, who ran without using her famous maiden name, finished 18 percentage points behind incumbent Republican Helen Delich Bentley in an election to represent Maryland’s 2nd District in the U.S. House.

Townsend wised up eight years later, and used her Kennedy name when appearing on the bottom half of the Democratic ticket in the Maryland gubernatorial election.

She and Parris Glendening were elected lieutenant governor and governor, respectively, in a close race won by .4 percentage points. The ticket was re-elected in a less-competitive race four years later.

The winning streak came to an end in 2002, when Townsend lost her bid for governor against Republican Bob Ehrlich. This was not a good year for the family, as Mark Shriver (Bobby’s younger brother) lost a close Democratic primary for a Maryland seat in the U.S. House.

Shriver’s defeat was the first, and so far only, loss for a member of the Kennedy family in a primary election that wasn’t for president.

The Kennedy political legacy stretches back to 1884, when a son of Irish immigrants who had become a successful businessman named P.J. was elected to his first of five one-year terms in the Massachusetts House. He followed this up with three two-year terms in the State Senate.

Perhaps the most noteworthy moment of P.J.’s political life, at least for the history books, came on Oct. 7, 1914 when his only son who survived childhood, Joseph, married Rose Fitzgerald. She was the daughter of Boston Mayor John F. “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald, and the marriage united the city’s two most prominent political families.

Joseph was a businessman who gained enormous wealth through various means, including producing Hollywood movies. He also ventured into politics, although all his major posts were appointed positions.

President Franklin Roosevelt named Joseph as the first chair of the recently formed Securities and Exchange Commission. Two years later, he was appointed to the top post of the U.S. Maritime Commission, and the next year he was named ambassador to Great Britain.

As a staunch advocate of American neutrality in a time when the nation was inevitably headed to war with Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, Joseph’s likelihood of moving further up the political ladder was low. He resigned as ambassador in 1940, effectively ending his political career. The future was with his sons.

Joseph and Rose had nine children — five daughters and four sons. The best hopes were placed on the oldest, Joseph Jr. He unfortunately died in action as a Naval Aviator during World War II.

The focus moved to John, two years younger than Joseph Jr., who was elected in 1946 as the representative of Massachusetts’ 11th District  in the U.S. House. He received 72 percent of the vote, defeating Republican opponent Lester Bowen by a wide margin.

John’s election marked the beginning of a 64-year stretch in which at least one Kennedy was serving in an elected position in Washington D.C., with the exception of a brief gap after John resigned from the U.S. Senate prior to become president.

The future president joined the U.S. Senate after defeating incumbent Republican Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. in 1952. He remained in that seat for eight years.

After he left the Senate to become president, John’s vacancy was filled by appointee Benjamin A. Smith. Two years later, John’s brother Ted, just 30 years old, won the seat in a special election by a wide margin against Republican George C. Lodge, whose father had been defeated by Ted’s older brother for the same position 10 years earlier.

Ted would hold onto the seat until his death in 2009, never being seriously challenged in eight re-election bids.

Robert joined his older brother in Washington in 1960 to become the U.S. attorney general. He remained at that post even after John’s assassination, and stepped down in September 1964 to pursue a campaign for a New York U.S. Senate seat.

He easily defeated Republican Kenneth Keating. This was Robert’s only election victory. He was assassinated four years later while running for president.

The family’s next generation features several people who were elected to public office.

Prior to Mark Shriver’s defeat in a 2002 congressional bid, he served two four-year terms in the Maryland House of Delegates. Santa Monicans know that his sister Maria was the state’s first lady for nearly eight years beginning in 2003. And of course, their brother Bobby served on the Santa Monica City Council from 2004 to 2012.

In addition to Kathleen, another child of Robert was an elected official. Joe Kennedy II won a seat representing a Massachusetts district in the U.S. House in 1986. He was then re-elected by large margins every two years after that until deciding not to run again in 1998.

Ted’s son Patrick became the youngest Kennedy to win an election when he joined the Rhode Island House of Representatives in 1988 at age 21. He served two two-year terms. Then in 1994, he was elected to the U.S. House, where he remained for eight terms.

Patrick’s brother Ted. Jr. is looking to continue the family legacy this year. He is running for a Connecticut State Senate seat.

There is already somebody in office from the family’s youngest generation. Joe Kennedy III, son of Joe II and grandson of Ted, won a seat in the U.S. House two years ago as the representative of a Massachusetts district. The 34-year-old has no opponent for his re-election bid this year.