"That people will disagree from time to time is obvious," O'Connor said. "But [Joseph Kennedy's] record has been supported by the overwhelming majority of the district."

Indeed, Kennedy has received 100 percent of the vote and usually receives more than 80 percent when he runs for re-election.

A Rich History

Historically, the representative from the eighth district has always had an easy time getting re-elected.

Since 1942, The Globe's Kenney said, only four elections have truly been competitive.

In 1942, former Boston mayor and famous political raconteur James Michael Curley defeated incumbent Thomas Eliot by only 7000 votes.

In 1946, a political war between three powerful political families erupted over the Democratic primary.

The Kennedy family was supporting a young son of theirs, a war veteran named John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

Two other families, the Sullivans and the O'Neill's, led at the time by powerful state representative Tip O'Neill, backed Mike Neville, a former Boston mayor.

Neville barely carried Cambridge, but Kennedy won Boston and soundly won a plurality of the primary votes.

When Kennedy relinquished the seat in 1956 to run for the U.S. Senate, O'Neill and Michael LoPresti, a Massachusetts State Senator, squared off in what was then the 11th district of the Commonwealth.

A majority of Boston was included in the district in those days, and LoPresti had expected to carry the city, Kenney said.

O'Neill won Cambridge and Somerville, and with the surprise backing of a prominent Italian-American family, split Boston with LoPresti.

He won the primary by fewer than 3,000 votes.

For the next 34 years, O'Neill dominated the district's--and eventually the nation's--political agenda.