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. [...]
In his letter, which was obtained by the Globe, Kennedy said that he backs the current succession law, enacted in 2004, which gives voters the power to fill a US Senate vacancy. But he said the state and country need two Massachusetts senators.
"I strongly support that law and the principle that the people should elect their senator,'' Kennedy wrote. "I also believe it is vital for this Commonwealth to have two voices speaking for the needs of its citizens and two votes in the Senate during the approximately five months between a vacancy and an election.''
As it is right now, a special election would be held within five months of a Senate vacancy occurring, leaving the seat unoccupied for that interim period. That law, as you may remember, was put in place in 2004 to prevent Mitt Romney from appointing a Republican Senator to John Kerry's seat. The Globe writes that Democrats in the Massachusetts legislature -- as well as Deval Patrick himself -- are not keen on tinkering with the law again, nervous about being accused of "engineering a self-serving change to help their party". However, Kennedy's personal appeal might have some sway.
Of course, it's pretty sobering to even be writing a post on this subject.
