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CNN Live At Daybreak

No Congressional Run for William Kennedy Smith

Aired August 01, 2001 - 08:07   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: William Kennedy Smith says he is not going to run for Congress next year from the state of Illinois. The nephew and Senator of -- the nephew of Senator Edward Kennedy talked with the "Chicago Sun-Times." The paper's Lynn Sweet was with us just a couple of days ago. She is the bureau chief for that newspaper out of Washington, D.C.

So, Lynn, what happened here? Those focus groups were talking, the results came in and what did they find out?

LYNN SWEET, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES: Well, what happened more than the results of any focus group, these events happened too quickly for him. The story came out that he was looking. It came just too fast. He hadn't even had time to inform the people he worked with that he was thinking of running for office. And then he realized he probably would have to just make too many decisions too fast without being able to weigh everything the way he had wanted to.

But what's interesting here is that while he closed the door in Illinois in a run for 2002, he kept it open very much for a run another time. He says he...

LIN: So what -- go ahead, Lynn.

SWEET: You know, he thinks he could put the trial behind him. He told me that he had his day in court. He said that he has done things since then, and that he wants to try at some point a run for elected office.

LIN: Do you think, though, it was just a gut check on his part? He just wanted to see if he felt any heat, if he felt that he was up to it?

SWEET: Well, I think he had to know if he could do it. He had to go out and find out what would happen. Now, with my story coming out so early in the process that it did, it sped things up and probably made it impossible for him to run right now, because he just couldn't decide what he wanted to do in an orderly way. But I think he does have the appetite to want to run for public office. And in Chicago, he has put together a new life. He has lived there eight years. While he has been fairly unknown to most of the community, people within parts of Chicago know about his work at the Rehabilitation Institute and for his work in his land mine organization to help victims who are amputees and others. So I think he wants to start in a sense having his public debut with people knowing that he has an interest in running for public office at some point.

LIN: Got you. He's sort of the Camilla Parker Bowles of politics at this point -- testing the waters out there.

SWEET: Well...

LIN: Thank you very much, Lynn Sweet.

SWEET: Thank you.

LIN: I'm sorry, we're out of time.

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