The case for Sean Bielat

The Oct. 4 edition of The Heights featured an article on MA-4 congressional candidate Joe Kennedy III, titled, “The Kennedy Legacy.” It touted the Kennedy family’s return to politics as well as Joe Kennedy’s limited set of accomplishments. Although the article was supportive of Kennedy, it unknowingly shed light on everything that is wrong with his candidacy. Joe Kennedy is running a campaign based largely on his family name, since the only true experience he can speak of is his two and a half years as an assistant district attorney. To bolster Kennedy’s case, that same article claimed that he was a “prominent member of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau” law firm, which in fact is not even a law firm. It also stated that Kennedy prosecuted drug criminals and defended domestic abuse victims when in reality there is no hard evidence of this. As proof that Kennedy wants to run a low-key campaign, he only agreed to do one televised debate with his opponent, Sean Bielat, even though Bielat challenged him to about 15. If he was truly running on something other than his name, he would be doing many more debates and interviews.

 

The contrast between Bielat and Kennedy could not be more stark. Bielat has one of the most robust resumes of any congressional candidate in the country. He currently serves as a Major in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve and has worked as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company in addition to having lead a $100 million defense robotics program at iRobot Corporation. These robots were used to disable roadside bombs in the Middle East.

 

At present, Bielat runs OneClickPolitics.com, an online start-up. As one can see, his record speaks for itself. If the country were facing a massive litigation or legal problem, then perhaps the lawyer, Kennedy, would be the man for the job. The truth is, however, this country faces an economic and fiscal crisis. Who better to face these problems than a man who received an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business and has extensive private sector experience? 

 

I urge everyone to ask himself or herself if they would know who Joe Kennedy was if not for his last name and tremendous family wealth—surely, very few people. This is true because Kennedy has not done much worthy of recognition. Kennedy would be a perfectly acceptable candidate if he was still a Kennedy and had an impressive record to speak of. Unfortunately, this is nowhere near the case. Too many people complain about not having a worthwhile political candidate to rally around. Sean Bielat is that candidate. He is a man with integrity and everything in his record demonstrates that he would be an exemplary U.S. congressman.