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 Joseph P. Kennedy III has announced he will run for Congress this year, at last raising the prospect of a Kennedy on Capitol Hill—and the rebirth of Massachusetts as a Democratic redoubt. 
 
 Camelot groupies, rejoice! The Kennedys are girding for a comeback. 
 
 While most of the political world was glued this week to the Republican presidential field’s tussle for the hearts of Granite Staters, a fresh Democratic front was opening just down the road in Massachusetts. 
 
 After months of low-level chatter, Joe Kennedy III—son of former Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II and grandson of Bobby—announced Thursday that, come January 20, he will leave his job with the Middlesex County District Attorney’s office to pursue the congressional seat being vacated by the crankily transcendent Barney Frank. 
 
 What’s the big deal, you ask? Isn’t a Kennedy running for office in Massachusetts the definition of dog-bites-man—the electoral equivalent of Lindsay Lohan failing a breathalyzer? 
 
 Not lately. After an impressive run, the nation’s most famous political dynasty has fallen on hard times in recent years. In early 2009, Caroline somehow let Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat slip through her fingers. Later that year, liberal lion Teddy was felled by a brain tumor. And in 2010, after years of struggling with prescription drug and alcohol abuse, Teddy’s son, Patrick, opted not to run for reelection to his Rhode Island congressional seat. 
 
 As for the younger generation, most have shunned the political arena. Indeed, since Patrick left office last January, the nation’s capital has been devoid of elected Kennedys for the first time since 1947 (that’s right: 64 consecutive years). At this point, the family standard has been relegated to Maria Shriver’s older brother, Bobby, the mayor of Santa Monica and the only member of the Kennedy clan currently in elective office. 
 
 How the mighty have fallen. 
 
 All things considered, there are worse horses the family could bet on. A hail and hearty 31, JPK3 has got the smile, the jawline, the shoulders. (Although, good Lord, could that hair be any brighter orange?) And if his much-talked-about speech last January commemorating JFK’s “City on a Hill” address is any sign, he’s not too shabby an orator. 
 
 As for his CV, young Joe has the sterling ed cred one would expect—Stanford undergrad, Harvard Law—along with a bleeding-heart stint in the Peace Corps. Post-Corps, he spent a couple of years as a prosecutor on—where else?—Cape Cod. But the electoral winds weren’t as friendly on the Cape as in other parts of the state. (Last year, there were reports that Kennedy had commissioned a poll that showed that Cape Cod and Southshore voters were suffering from “Kennedy fatigue.”) So in September, he moved over to become an assistant DA for the vastly more populous, and more Democratic, Middlesex County—a far more propitious platform from which to launch a political career. (It certainly worked wonders for Great Uncle Teddy.) 
 
 That said, this run is about more than the reboot of a single dynasty. It is also about the Democratic Party’s fierce struggle to repaint Massachusetts deep blue, thus erasing one of its most searing recent embarrassments. 
 
 It’d be tough to overstate the shock to the Dems’ system when they allowed Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat to be captured by Scott Brown in 2010. A Republican! In Teddy’s chair! We’re talking deep psychic scarring here, along with much weeping, gnashing of teeth, and drowning of sorrows in tall green bottles of Jameson. 
 
 This year offers a shot at redemption, if only Dems can fire up their voters. And what better way to do so than with a Kennedy on the ticket? Barack Obama may no longer make Bay State hearts go pitter-pat, but add a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed new Kennedy to budding liberal heartthrob and Senate hopeful Elizabeth Warren? ||||| A top Massachusetts Democrat said Saturday that one of Robert F. Kennedy's grandsons is considering carrying on the family's vaunted political tradition by running for the U.S. House of Representatives. 
 
 Joseph P. Kennedy III, one of the twin sons of former Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II, may run this fall if Democratic Rep. William Delahunt decides against seeking re-election in his South Shore and Cape Cod district. 
 
 Kennedy, 29, "has been considering it but he hasn't made a decision," said the Democrat, who demanded anonymity to speak about private conversations with the father and son. 
 
 The younger Kennedy did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Law School who works as a prosecutor in Barnstable County, near his family's Cape Cod compound. 
 
 Delahunt has served in Congress since 1997, but Massachusetts incumbents were shocked in January when a little-known Republican state senator, Scott Brown, claimed the U.S. Senate seat held for nearly a half-century by Edward M. Kennedy. 
 
 That prompted questions about the endurance of the Kennedy legacy and inspired several local Republicans, including former state Treasurer Joe Malone and state Rep. Jeffrey Perry of Sandwich, to say they are considering running for Delahunt's seat. 
 
 Brown not only beat his Democratic opponent, Attorney General Martha Coakley, in Delahunt's district, but he also won the Barnstable precinct where the late senator lived and used to vote. 
 
 Delahunt has also been criticized in recent weeks for his handling of a 1986 shooting by Amy Bishop, a University of Alabama professor accused of killing three colleagues this month. At the time, Delahunt was the local district attorney, and he accepted the findings of local and state police that Bishop's shooting of her brother was accidental. 
 
 "These are rare opportunities when there is a potential open seat," said Paul Watanabe, a political science professor at UMass-Boston. "He is the Kennedy most talked about in terms of carrying on the family tradition in the U.S. House or U.S. Senate." 
 
 "It has significant value in terms of fundraising ability, scaring off potential Democratic and Republican contenders, and it immediately thrusts this congressional race into national attention, rather than just one of 434 other races," Watanbe added. 
 
 The uncertain political climate, however, would likely play heavily in any final decision by Kennedy, said Boston College political science professor Marc Landy. 
 
 "What is unusual is it could be a real contest, because this contest would not be fought on `the Kennedy tradition.' The issues would really matter in this election. And I can't predict how the voters in that district will respond, and neither can he. And that's the big story: Will a Kennedy enter a race with that much uncertainty?" said Landy. 
 
 Before Edward Kennedy died of brain cancer in August, a member of his family had served in Congress since 1946, when his brother, future President John F. Kennedy, won a U.S. House seat. Joseph P. Kennedy II held that seat from 1987 to 1999, but he decided against seeking re-election after an aborted run for governor in 1998.
– Capitol Hill has been without a Kennedy a full year now after a six-decade run, but that has a decent chance of changing in September: Joseph P. Kennedy III is formally "exploring" a run for Barney Frank's House seat. "A hail and hearty 31, JPK3 has got the smile, the jawline, the shoulders," writes Michelle Cottle at the Daily Beast. "(Although, good Lord, could that hair be any brighter orange?)" He's also a decent orator, and has a Harvard Law degree and experience as an assistant DA under his belt. This race, though, is about more than recharging the Kennedy dynasty, writes Cottle: It's part of what could be a comeback year for Democrats in Massachusetts. They're still smarting over losing a Senate seat to Scott Brown, but Elizabeth Warren offers a chance to correct that. "This year offers a shot at redemption, if only Dems can fire up their voters. And what better way to do so than with a Kennedy on the ticket?" Maybe, but a skeptical Peter Gelzinis at the Boston Herald warns that plenty of "Kennedy fatigue" still exists in the state.