Massachusetts Senate Seat Vacancy

[rambone]

In 2004, it was looking like Sen. John Kerry's (D-MA) senate seat was possibly going to be vacant if he would have been elected President.

Sen. Ted Kennedy (D) pushed the Massachusetts State legislature to pass a law that stripped the power from the Massachusetts Governor to appoint a new Senator, and called for an Special Election to be held immediately upon the seat being vacant. This was done primarily because at the time, Mitt Romney (R) was the Massachusetts governor and it would have assured the Republicans a seat if Kerry won the presidential election.

The Democrats were successful changing the law to require a Special Election to fill a vacant seat.

Mass. Legislature overrides Romney veto on appointing Kerry's Senate replacement

Legislature strips Romney of Senate appointment power
By Jennifer Peter, Associated Press Writer
Aug 1, 2004

BOSTON -- The Democratic Legislature Friday officially stripped Republican Gov. Mitt Romney of the power to appoint a replacement to John Kerry's Senate seat if the Democrat wins the presidency this fall.

A day after Kerry accepted the nomination at a hometown convention, the House and Senate voted to override Romney's veto of the bill. This was the final action needed for the bill to become law.

Under the new law, there would be a special election for the seat no sooner than 145 days and no later than 160 days after the vacancy occurs. Previously, the governor would have appointed a replacement who would have served until the next general election, which in this case would be 2006.

Republicans accused Democrats of pushing the bill through to help give members of the state's all-Democratic Congressional delegation a leg up in the race for the seat, erasing the possibility that there would be a Republican gaining advantage by serving as Romney's appointee.

​

Now, in Aug 2009, Ted Kennedy sensed his impending death and asks the Massachusetts State Legislature to reverse the law that he pushed into passing in 2004. Massachusetts is now Governed by a Democrat, so the Democrats want the power back in the hands of the Governor to appoint a replacement to a vacant Senate seat, rather than hold a Special Election.

Kennedy Asks For His Own Law to Be Overturned

Senator Edward M. Kennedy, in a poignant acknowledgment of his mortality at a critical time in the national health care debate, has privately asked the governor and legislative leaders to change the succession law to guarantee that Massachusetts will not lack a Senate vote when his seat becomes vacant.

In a personal, sometimes wistful letter sent Tuesday to Governor Deval L. Patrick, Senate President Therese Murray, and House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo, Kennedy asks that Patrick be given authority to appoint someone to the seat temporarily before voters choose a new senator in a special election.

Although Kennedy, who is battling brain cancer, does not specifically mention his illness or the health care debate raging in Washington, the implication of his letter is clear: He is trying to make sure that the leading cause in his life, better health coverage for all, advances in the event of his death.

A week later he passed away. Ted Kennedy and the Democrats act only in their own self-interest, not in the interest of their constituents. They wanted a Special Elections 5 years ago, so deal with it now.

We'll see what the Massachusetts State Legislature does. We can bet they will put power back into the hands of the Governor, now that it is a Democrat in office.

Epic Hypocrisy.
​

 

[CarmelHP]

Do any still say he was NOT evil. Everything he did has one goal, the accumulation of power and damn everything and everyone else.

 

[RCB]

That's pretty heinous. Epic hypocrisy indeed.

 

[JcJ]

A small price to pay for being rid of that pile of fermented worm dirt.

 

[Phil502]

Whats wrong with that? He's my hero.......

 

[redneckmedic]

But wait, if they do in honor of his life and RESPECTing his last wished, it makes it OK....right?

 

[JcJ]

Anybody wanna bet that Caroline Kennedy is 'installed' as the next Massachewed**** Senator?

 

[CountryBoy19]

Ok, so did the law get reverted or not?

It seems to me that if he's already passed the current law would hold precedence and they would have to do an election. But that is just common sense talking and we all know that common sense and politics cannot be used in the same sentence.

 

[rambone]

Ok, so did the law get reverted or not?

It seems to me that if he's already passed the current law would hold precedence and they would have to do an election. But that is just common sense talking and we all know that common sense and politics cannot be used in the same sentence.

Last thing I heard was news that Kennedy asked for the Massachusetts lawmakers revert the law. Keep an eye on the media for news if it is actually changed. It doesn't happen overnight though.

 

[CountryBoy19]

Last thing I heard was news that Kennedy asked for the Massachusetts lawmakers revert the law. Keep an eye on the media for news if it is actually changed. It doesn't happen overnight though.

But since he's already died can they still change the law and have it take effect for his replacement? It would only make sense that once he's died they're stuck with the current replacement practice and can't come up with a new one overnight to please themselves.

 

[Phil502]

But since he's already died can they still change the law and have it take effect for his replacement? It would only make sense that once he's died they're stuck with the current replacement practice and can't come up with a new one overnight to please themselves.

Makes sense does not matter to these guys anyway.


I think the vote would be on the replacement procedure itself, Governor Appointment vs. Election. Right now it's election and this takes time so they kind of shot themselves in the foot assuming Herman Kerry Munster would win last time.

 

[rambone]

But since he's already died can they still change the law and have it take effect for his replacement? It would only make sense that once he's died they're stuck with the current replacement practice and can't come up with a new one overnight to please themselves.

Common sense and reason would tell me that you are correct. But in politics, one should not count on those factors to come into play.

 

[jedi]

It's a shame that one of our original 13 colonies and a place where so much of our founding history was made is so corrupt now. It truly saddens my heart.

 

[rambone]

UPDATE

Not surprisingly, the Massachusetts Senate changed the law back to favor the democrats, now that the Democrats are the one's with a sitting Governor.

Senate OK’s Kennedy successor bill - The Boston Globe



And here is a discussion of Paul Kirk, the new senator.

Next Massachusetts Senator An Ultimate Insider - Yahoo! News

Paul G. Kirk Jr. has spent most of his life in politics, rising from Senate aide to Democratic National Committee chairman and later co-chairing the Commission on Presidential Debates. But he has kept himself outside the spotlight and is known as a calm and cautious strategist. An associate of Kirk's told The New York Times in 1985: ''Behind that quiet exterior is a quiet interior.''

Kirk's public profile was boosted Thursday when he agreed to temporarily fill the Senate seat vacated by the death of Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts. In addition to working as a Kennedy aide from 1969 to 1977 and serving as national political director for the senator's abortive 1980 presidential campaign, Kirk is chairman of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation's board of directors.

"Paul was my dad's most loyal guy," said Kennedy's son, Rhode Island Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy, who reportedly joined other family members in lobbying Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick in selecting Kirk until a special Senate election is held in January. "My dad thought the world of Paul. I think the world of Paul."

Kennedy family members chose Kirk to serve as master of ceremonies at the senator's August memorial service. "I have never met anyone whose spirits were not uplifted by being in the company of Ted Kennedy ... Sen. Kennedy was the most thoughtful, genuinely considerate human being I've ever known," Kirk told mourners.

Party Builder During Kirk's four years as head of the Democratic Party, he was credited with reviving state organizations, greatly improving Democratic fund-raising capabilities and striving to unite an organization that had to cope with Republican President Ronald Reagan's ascendancy. He diminished the influence of special-interest caucuses, a move that some interest groups initially resisted but eventually acknowledged was necessary.

Kirk won praise from Southern Democrats who had regarded him as a "Kennedy liberal" when he first took office; they said he met regularly with them and listened to their concerns. Al From, director of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, also said in 1989 that Kirk did a "terrific job."

At last year's Democratic National Convention, Kirk said he had sought to make many of the changes that DNC Chairman Howard Dean subsequently enacted in seeking to make Democrats more competitive across the nation rather than just its usual geographic strongholds. "It's something that some of us tried to do early on with state parties, but that was before a lot of highly sophisticated technological databases and tools were available, and I think Howard has taken advantage of those tools," he said.

Kirk took the DNC job after serving as its treasurer shortly after Democrats were embarrassed in Reagan's 1984 landslide re-election. Among his early competitors for the post was former California Democratic Chairwoman Nancy Pelosi, now House Speaker. Pelosi withdrew from the race before the final vote and threw her support to former North Carolina Gov. Terry Sanford, whom Kirk defeated by more than 50 votes.

In a February 1985 speech, he decried those who "suggest we have to become more like Republicans if we are to survive as a political party." He moved quickly to set up a Democratic Policy Commission made up of governors, mayors, members of Congress and state officials. Upon leaving the job, he said his only regret was not being able to win the White House in 1988; the losing candidate, then-Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, was reportedly also a finalist to fill Kennedy's Senate seat.

Lawyer, Kennedy Aide, Lobbyist Kirk was born in Newton, Mass., a Boston suburb. His father, a judge, served as a justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court for 10 years before retiring in 1970. The younger Kirk graduated from Harvard in 1960, where he played football, and Harvard Law School in 1964. His early contact with the Kennedys came while working on Robert F. Kennedy's 1968 presidential bid.

After Robert Kennedy's assassination, Kirk considered quitting politics, according to news accounts. But he moved to Washington to become Edward Kennedy's chief legislative and political strategist.

He left in 1977 to practice law again, but when the senator opted to run against President Jimmy Carter in 1980, Kirk joined him. He helped negotiate a compromise between the Kennedy and Carter camps on a jobs section of the party platform at the Democratic National Convention that year.

After Kennedy lost the nomination, Kirk returned to practicing law before joining the DNC. During his time as chairman, he joined with his Republican counterpart, Frank Fahrenkopf, in forming the independent Commission on Presidential Debates. The two have continued to lead the organization, serving as intermediaries between rival presidential staffs trying to dictate the terms of debates to their advantage.

Upon leaving the DNC, Kirk briefly toyed with running for Massachusetts governor in 1990. But he instead served as chairman from 1992 to 2001 of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, a nonprofit organization working to strengthen and expand democracy worldwide.
In that role, Kirk led a delegation of Americans who observed the 1988 Mexican elections. "It was a great step forward for Mexico," he told National Public Radio in August.

Kirk also did lobbying work in the 1990s as chairman and chief executive officer of Kirk & Associates Inc., a business advisory and consulting firm. The Boston Globe reported that he was paid $35,000 to represent the pharmaceutical company Hoechst Marion Roussel on legislation before the Senate in 1999, according to federal disclosure records. He is currently on the board of directors of the Hartford Insurance Group.

Kirk also organized and led the successful efforts of a group of Boston-area business and community leaders in 1999 to prevent the New England Patriots football team from moving from Foxboro, Mass., to Hartford, Conn. He has maintained an avid interest in sports; in 1993 he was reportedly considered as Major League Baseball commissioner and in 2004 wrote an Op-Ed for the Boston Globe arguing that baseball great Pete Rose should not be allowed to enter the Hall of Fame for his acknowledged gambling on the sport.

"Baseball is that treasured game at which little boys dream of their manhood and old men dream of their boyhood," Kirk wrote. "It is an early teacher of some of life's most important lessons ... It's where we were first taught that there are consequences for not playing by the rules."

 

[Phil502]

They need that vote for health care in a hurry.

 

[nawainwright]

You gotta love the Democrat attitude....if we can't win, lets change the rules so we do. BS

 

[spartan933]

Unfortunately, being from Lake County, I have to hear about Illinois/Republic of Chicago and all their (insert expletive) corrupt politicians and indictments.

It does not bother me that they appointed an interim Senator. The guy said he is not going to run. Yes, it gives the Democrats an extra vote. But, Republicans would do the same thing.

Anyways, my point is that the Republican Party will just have to campaign really hard. And, I prefer to have the election rather than the appointment. Let the people decide. Illinois proved that appointment nonsense doesn't work.