Several of the next generation of Kennedys are being tipped to continue the family's political tradition after the death of its patriarch, Edward Kennedy.

The Kennedy political machine has proved adept at projecting family members into office, and there are 26 living grandchildren of Joe and Rose Kennedy to choose from. As well as Edward's two sons, Edward Jr and Patrick, and daughter Kara, at their deaths in the 1960s John and Robert Kennedy between them left 13 children, several of whom have shown an interest in public life.

Even Edward's widow Vicki has been suggested as an interim candidate for the Massachusetts Senate seat until an election is held in January next year.

However, aides to Mrs Kennedy have hinted that she has no interest in public office, and few of the young Kennedys have appeared immune from the self-destructive Kennedy streak that Edward embodied in the hard-drinking, fast-driving and womanising days before he met his second wife in 1991.

The most prominent candidate is probably Patrick Kennedy, a 42-year-old unmarried US Congressman for Rhode Island, whose name has already been linked to the Massachusetts seat left vacant by his father's death on Tuesday.

But despite his 21 years in Congress – he was the youngest Kennedy to enter politics – he is still viewed as a comparative lightweight, known mainly for championing better healthcare, wider access to prescription drugs through Medicare, and more enlightened attitudes to mental illness.

Treated for cocaine abuse while still a teenager, he has also wrestled with alcoholism, binge drinking and bipolar disorder. His troubled relationship with prescription drugs has led him to check into rehab on several occasions.

In separate incidents in 2000 he was accused of pushing a security guard at Los Angeles airport, abandoning a rental boat on Martha's Vineyard with $28,000 of damage, and arguing so violently with his date aboard his yacht that the US Coastguard was despatched to investigate.

In May 2006 he was arrested after crashing his Ford Mustang convertible into a barrier on Capitol Hill in Washington at 2.45am.

Although he reportedly appeared intoxicated, and claimed that he was late for a vote – which had finished six hours earlier – officers did not breathalyse him and drove him home. After a plea bargain he admitted a charge of driving under the influence of prescription drugs, and was fined $350 and placed on probation for a year on condition he underwent rehab, gave weekly urine tests and attended Alcoholics Anonymous.

In 2007 he caused another furore by refusing to return $6,600 in campaign donations to Norman Hsu, a Democratic fundraiser accused of trying to buy influence.

In June this year he announced that he was going back into rehab as a preventative measure.

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