Maryland officials joined in mourning Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, with many describing him as irreplaceable and some expressing hope that his death might help revive a faltering Democratic effort to overhaul the nation's health care system.
Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, a co-chair of Kennedy's 1980 presidential campaign who would later serve with him in the Senate for 22 years, described the Massachusetts Democrat as a loyal friend who was "modest about himself."
At one of the high points of Kennedy's life, his speech at the 1980 Democratic National Convention, it was Mikulski who introduced him to the crowd at Madison Square Garden in New York.
In a lengthy statement after his death, the Maryland Democrat described her colleague as "a fierce and determined advocate for women and for equality."
His niece, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the eldest of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy's 11 children, is among the best-known of the family's Maryland members. She served as lieutenant governor from 1995 to 2003 in the administration of Gov. Parris N. Glendening and was the Democratic nominee for governor in 2002, losing to Republican Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.
In a public statement, the Kennedy family described the senator, who died late Tuesday, as "the husband, father, grandfather, brother and uncle we loved so deeply" and "the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives."
Kennedy died two weeks after his elder sister, Eunice, who was married to R. Sargent Shriver Jr. of Maryland and made her home in Potomac. Their son Mark Shriver served two terms in the Maryland House of Delegates, from 1995 to 2003.
Rep. Chris Van Hollen, who defeated Mark Shriver in the 2002 Democratic congressional primary, called Kennedy a "tenacious fighter for working men and women who share the belief that America is the greatest country in the world."
Rep. John Sarbanes of Baltimore said Kennedy "had a way of articulating what a better America would look like." Sarbanes said Democrats in Congress would now rededicate themselves to the fight for expanded access to health care that Kennedy long championed.
"There will be a sense of wanting to complete this mission that he was on for decades," Sarbanes said.
Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin, a Maryland Democrat, said Kennedy's memory "may very well help those of us" surmount impasses in crafting a health care measure. But he said it would be "very tough" to replace Kennedy, who "was truly unique."
