Vicki Kennedy, the widow of Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), won’t run against her husband’s Republican successor in 2012, she told the Boston Globe this week.

“There’s no elective office for me,” Kennedy said in an interview with Globe columnist Scot Lehigh that was posted Tuesday night.
 
Her husband raised the possibility of her candidacy both before and after he became ill with cancer, according to Kennedy, but she rejected the idea. “Every time I said, ‘You’re Sen. Kennedy, and that’s it,’” she said.

Sen. Kennedy died Aug. 25, 2009, and Republican Scott Brown won a special election for his seat in January 2010. He is up for re-election in 2012.

“I can’t imagine running for elective office without Teddy at my side, and that really is what it all comes down to,” Kennedy said. “I hope people respect that.”

She is currently working on the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, which will be built in Boston. A groundbreaking for the educational facility is planned for April.