Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick named Paul G. Kirk as the interim U.S. senator from Massachusetts on Thursday.Time was that the governor in Massachusetts appointed interim Senators and that was it (sort of the way that ex-governor of Illinois Blagojevich did). In `04, with the chance that John Kerry would resign his Senate seat, the Democrats in the Massachusetts legislature rammed through a bill to require a special election in order to deprive then-governor Willard M. "Flip-Flop" Romney of the power to appoint a replacement.
Kirk will fill the U.S. Senate seat left empty by the death of former Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. Patrick said Kirk will begin serving immediately.
That was fine, the idea that a governor gets to appoint a political crony to the job for a year or is kind of grating. But this new power of the Massachusetts governor to appoint a short-term interim Senator is just offensive. After all, Minnesota got along just fine with only one senator for half-a-year while Norm Coleman was throwing his hissy fits. Normally nobody would give a fuck, but this change in the law in Massachusetts for a placeholder Senator was done solely to give the Democrats a shot at 60 votes in the Senate.
I'll bet that as soon as the special election is held and a new Senator is on the job, that the Massachusetts legislature will repeal the "special appointment" law. That will be close to the penultimate in cynical politics.
6 comments:
The idea that the Governor gets to appoint a fill-in has been the rule "forever" so I doubt it will change. Is it no longer true in Mass. ??
I don't follow your comment about this being a new power, replacing the special election... or is it vice-versa?
The appointment rule has lead to some weird stuff in just Minnesota, in my memory. Senator Humphry's seat was taken by his widow until the election.
Wendell Anderson resigned, and had his Lt. Governor appoint him Governor. Now that's sleazy.
Senator Wellstone's seat was taken (very briefly) by Dean Barkley, an "Independant Party" candidate appointed by his party-mate Gov. Jesse (the body) Ventura.
And lately,I'm very very glad to have Al Franken filling the empty spot Norm Coleman created ( even empty when Norm was in office, really. )
As a resident of MA, I'm glad we have two senators again. I agree that the initial '04 change stunk of sleaze, but many other states have similar laws and we might as well take our chances with a gubernatorial appointment regardless of who's actually governor.
I think it's important that a state have full representation regardless of party, and that is the intent of the older law here. At any rate we will have a special election in January to fill the seat.
Regardless of party. The people of any state or party that loses a representative for whatever reason deserve equal representation.
What's your point?
So equal representation is wrong?
I don't see the wrong created by Deval Patrick.
Do you have a problem with Ted Kennedy?
Sarah, the rules on interim senators are up to the states (not so for representatives, btw).
42 and Russ, MA had direct appointment. But that was taken away from the governor to keep Romney from appointing a Republican to replace Kerry. Yet now that the governor is a Democrat, direct appointment is OK, at least until the January special election.
Assume, for the sake of discussion, that the current governor of MA is a Republican. Do you think that there would be any move by the current Legislature to give a GOP governor the power to appoint an interim senator until the January election?
If the answer is "no, there would not be", then I think you have to concede that the recent change in the law has less to do with providing a second senator to the people of the Commonwealth and more with having another Democrat in the Senate.
And therein lies the basis for my claiming that this is a bit of sleaze.
Part of the problem is that all politicians are sleaze, and all are infected with a too-healthy dose of, "It doesn't count if it benefits OUR side!"
Were I an investing sort, I'd put my money in tar markets and goose feather futures.
and we are not a banana republic??
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