CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
– POLITICS
Updated Sept. 23, 2009 – 5:43 p.m.
Massachusetts Ready To Allow Fill-In Senator
By Emily Cadei, CQ Staff
The bill to allow the Massachusetts governor to temporarily fill the state’s empty U.S. Senate seat is now in Gov. Deval Patrick ’s hands.
The state legislature cleared the final procedural hurdle for the measure on Wednesday, with each chamber granting final passage; the state Senate voted 24-16 and the House voted 95-59.
Patrick has said he will promptly sign the measure into law.
He is expected to name his choice for the interim position within days, giving the majority party in Congress again the 60 votes needed to stop filibusters when all Democrats vote together.
Patrick has not said who he has in mind for the job, but Paul G. Kirk Jr. , chairman of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and Democratic National Committee chairman, emerged as the frontrunner Wednesday, thanks to backing from the Kennedy family.
The Boston Globe reported Wednesday afternoon that Sen. Kennedy’s widow, Victoria Reggie Kennedy, has asked Patrick to appoint Kirk. Kennedy’s sons, Rhode Island Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy and businessman Edward M. Kennedy Jr., have also weighed in on Kirk’s behalf, the Globe reported.
Congressman Kennedy told CQ Politics, “My dad thought the world of Paul. I think the world of Paul.”
Previously, much of the speculation for the appointment had centered on former Gov. Michael Dukakis, the 1988 presidential nominee. The Globe endorsed Dukakis’ appointment Tuesday.
Other names that have been floated include former state Attorney General Scott Harshbarger, who lost a race for governor in 1998; former Massachusetts Senate President Robert Travaglini; and former Lt Gov. Evelyn Murphy.
Before he can appoint anyone, Patrick will have to send a letter to declare an emergency so that the law can go into effect immediately.
Republicans have made an issue of the fact that as a matter of legislative routine, Massachusetts laws take effect 90 days after enactment. That legislature can wave that waiting period in emergency situations, if the legislation passes with a two-thirds majority — and this bill did not have that size of a winning margin.
Patrick, however, has unilaterally given legislation emergency status in the past.
Republican state Rep. Martin Frost said the fact that Patrick intended to declare an emergency when the legislature did not was “another exercise in the abuse of the process.”
The small Republican minority in the legislature has complained that the measure is simply an attempt by Democrats to retain 60 votes in the U.S. Senate as a floor vote on the health care overhaul approaches.
The statutory change to allow for the appointee was requested by Kennedy himself, days before he died of brain cancer Aug. 25.
As it stands now, the seat would remain vacant until the special election for a successor, scheduled for Jan. 19.
First posted Sept. 23, 2009 12:25 a.m.
Comments
Would this bill have passed with a 2/3 (super)majority in at least either chamber had the bill specified that any would-be appointee must be of the same party as that of the last elected incumbent, as is the case in WY (and a handful of others)?
Notice that Joe Kennedy was not listed among the family members who wants Kirk to be appointed? I would not be surprised if Gov. Patrick intends to appoint Joe Kennedy to the Senate, and the chatter about Kirk was only a smokescreen.
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