Ted Kennedy: The Moral Choice
"I am not a womanizer. I am not a groper," Jack E. Robinson, the wealthy Connecticut businessman and now opponent of 37-year incumbent Edward Kennedy in the Massachusetts Senate race, said after distributing "The Robinson Report." Robinson backed this statement with an 11-page self-report detailing allegations of drunken driving, sexual misconduct, plagiarism, and carrying an illegal weapon. The report presumably was an attempt to clear the air as much as possible before his campaign gets underway, a campaign for which he is ready and willing to spend $1 million of his personal funds.
However, just hours after announcing his candidacy on March 21, Robinson found himself tangled up in another less-than-flattering incident. While driving on Boston's Jamaicaway and giving an interview to WBUR radio, Robinson found himself in the middle of a three-car accident and was accused of fleeing the scene.
Robinson claimed that he was merely looking for a safe place to pull over after a 17-year-old man swerved from the on-coming lane of traffic and caused the accident, but the third driver involved thought he was trying to leave the scene and chased him in her car. While on the phone with WBUR, Robinson was discussing Governor Paul Cellucci's decision to withdraw support for his campaign because of all the other allegations. "The sheer volume of the allegations and the disturbing nature of some of these allegations makes it pretty impossible for him to get this campaign off the ground," Cellucci said earlier.
Moments after the accident, Robinson told the radio reporter, "Boy, everything is happening to me. Cellucci is withdrawing his support, and people are sliding across the highway at me."
Despite these bad omens, Robinson is maintaining a positive attitude about his campaign. "I feel liberated to run a John McCain-style campaign, free from the restrictions, good old boy rules and double-crossed tactics that obviously govern the Statehouse," Robinson said, in reference to the loss of Cellucci's support.
In addition to issues raised by his so-called "Robinson Report" and by his recent accident, Robinson has also had to deal with questions of residency. Even though he now lives in Connecticut, he says that he was born in Boston and educated in Massachusetts schools. He also claimed to be moving into his parents' Boston home.
Robinson is currently president and CEO of Cellular One Caribbean and formerly served as vice president of corporate development for Eastern Airlines. A graduate of Brown and Harvard Universities, he is described as fiscally conservative but socially moderate.