I was being perfectly serious, & you're not correct. Markey is the ranking member on both East Asian & Pacific Affairs as well as Environment & Public Works Oversight, & it's that latter committee that's particularly key in regards to his influence, considering Markey has been Capitol Hill's premier environmental activist since 1982.
As for Kennedy accruing real influence, I can't square him being able to do that with his obvious ambitions. We now see that his House seat was nothing more than a springboard to him, & his haste here now suggests that he feels like he needs a Senate seat sooner rather than later, so who's to say the intent here isn't to just attempt to use the Senate seat as another springboard, too, meaning he won't even wanna be in the Senate long enough to gain any real influence in the first place.
And again, no, Kennedy is not "likely to have more sway even in the short term" because, again, that's not how the Senate operates.
Regular voters don't know or care about any of this. They are going to hear the name Kennedy, swoon, and cast their ballot for him. Voters are mindless bots for the most part that sway one way or the other based on how someone makes them feel not on what they will actually do or can do. I want Markey to win but he is probably toast.
