RFK's grandson won't run for House in 2010

BOSTON - Joseph P. Kennedy III, the son of a former congressman and the grandson of Robert F. Kennedy, said yesterday he had decided against running for the House seat from Massachusetts this year.

Kennedy, 29, told The Associated Press that he wants to remain in his job as a prosecutor in Cape Cod's Barnstable County, a post he has had for eight months. "I've got a job I love being an assistant district attorney on the Cape, and I want to get better at it at this point," he said.

A top state Democrat said Saturday that Kennedy was weighing a race if Rep. William Delahunt were to decide against a re-election bid in the district serving the South Shore and Cape Cod.

Joseph Kennedy III served as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic after graduating from Stanford University and participated in the late Sen. Edward Kennedy's final Senate campaign in 2006.

He told AP, "I certainly thought about it [the House race] a bit with close friends and family," but he said he felt no special pressure to vindicate the family name. - AP