Fight Likely For Kennedys Senate Seat With No Clear Successor
The contest for a prized Senate seat is complicated by Kennedys longtime dominance of state politics as well as uncertainty over the procedure for replacing him. Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick said yesterday he wants a change in state law to let him appoint an interim senator to serve until the state can hold a special election.
Massachusetts Democrats, not wanting to let a Republican governor appoint a senator, changed the law in 2004 to require a special election within 145 to 160 days of a vacancy. Before he died, Kennedy sent a letter asking that the law be amended to allow for an interim officeholder.
At least eight political figures in the state may emerge as realistic candidates for the seat. They include House lawmakers Stephen Lynch, Michael Capuano, Edward Markey, James McGovern and William Delahunt, state Attorney General Martha Coakley and former Representative Martin Meehan, all Democrats. Republicans including former lieutenant Kerry Healey could also contend.
The special election is likely to increase the number of competitors and create a political “domino” that could reach the precinct level of the Bay State, said Fred Bayles, director of Boston Universitys statehouse program.
“Everythings going to fall down because everyone will start moving around either jockeying for his seat or for the other positions that could open up,” Bayles said.
Patrick Backs Change
Kennedy, 77, who died Aug. 25 of brain cancer, was first elected to the Senate in November 1962. His brother, the late President John F. Kennedy, held the seat from 1953 to December 1960.
Patrick, a Democrat, said in an interview on Boston radio station WBUR yesterday that “the senators request to appoint someone to serve for the five months until a special election was entirely reasonable.”
“Particularly now, when you think about the momentous change legislation that is pending in the Congress today, Massachusetts needs two voices,” the governor said.
Massachusetts House Speaker Robert DeLeo and state Senate President Therese Murray, both Democrats, said a hearing on changing the law likely will be moved up from October to September, the New York Times reported.
60-Vote Majority
Several veteran politicians have been mentioned as temporary replacements, including former Governor Michael Dukakis, who is traveling in Greece and didnt immediately respond to an e-mail seeking his comment.
Another issue is whether a member of the Kennedy family will try to claim the seat. The senators wife, Victoria, has told friends she doesnt want it, the Boston Globe reported. Other relatives, including Kennedys nephew Joseph P. Kennedy, a former congressman, havent indicated their intentions.
Massachusetts lawmakers in the House such as Barney Frank, 69, who heads the Financial Services Committee, and Edward Markey, 63, who heads the Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment, would have to give up their chairmanships to become a freshman senator.
Wars to Health Care
During his Senate career, Kennedy helped shape the national discourse on everything from wars to health care and led the transformation of Massachusetts to one of the most Democratic states in the country. In Massachusetts, 92 percent of state legislators are Democrats, and the congressional delegation is Democratic, as are all statewide officials except the treasurer, who has no party affiliation.
At the heart of the race to succeed Kennedy is the state law requiring a special election. When John Kerry, then the junior senator from Massachusetts, was running for president in 2004, the governor was Mitt Romney, 62, a Republican. The law at the time empowered the governor to appoint a replacement.
The Democrat-controlled legislature changed the law to require a special election to keep Romney from appointing a Republican. Then Kerry lost the election to incumbent President George W. Bush, 63.