Vicki Kennedy says she's not interested in future Senate run

The widow of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) said over the weekend that she has no interest in looking to claim his old seat.

Vicki Kennedy told the Boston Globe in a profile piece published on Sunday that "there's only one Senator Kennedy," and that she wouldn't be interested in running in the future, presumably in 2012 to challenge Sen. Scott Brown (R).

“I think there’s more than one way to serve,” Kennedy told the paper. “And for me, that’s not it. I have enormous respect for people who do. And I think I can have a wonderful, productive life serving, but that doesn’t have to be elective office.”

Mrs. Kennedy had been seen as a possible candidate after her husband's death last August to either fill the vacancy temporarily, or on a longer-term basis. She passed on that opportunity, leaving Paul Kirk (D) to fill the seat temporarily. State Attorney General Martha Coakley (D) subsequently lost the special election in January to Brown, an election that helped slow down Democrats' progress on healthcare and other top issues this year.

Other members of the Kennedy clan have had their names mixed in with speculative candidates in 2012, but none of them have taken affirmative steps, at this point, to suggest they'll challenge Brown in two years.