Mass. lawmakers brace for hearing on bill to temporarily fill Kennedy’s vacant Senate seat

Source: Breaking News


Mass. lawmakers prep for Kennedy successor hearing

BOSTON — Democrats and Republicans are gearing up for a contentious public hearing over a bill that would allow Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick to temporarily fill the vacant U.S. Senate seat of the late Edward Kennedy.


Patrick supports changing the law, saying Massachusetts needs two voices in the Senate until a special election can be held Jan. 19.

Republicans oppose the bill, pointing out that Democrats changed the law five years ago to block then-Gov. Mitt Romney from naming a fellow Republican to fill U.S. Sen. John Kerry’s seat if he succeeded in his White House campaign.

Neither House Speaker Robert DeLeo nor Senate President Therese Murray have said whether they back the change.

The hearing is scheduled for 1 p.m. Wednesday at the Statehouse.


Read more: http://blog.taragana.com/n/mass-lawmakers-brace-for-hearing-on-bill-to-temporarily-fill-kennedys-vacant-senate-seat-161282/

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We'll probably lose this too just because we're so weak and afraid.

We fiddled with the systems and then it came back to bite us...

Presumably there was a provision for making sure there were two senators before the law was changed five years ago. What was the provision in the change?

fill the seat for the balance of the term--i.e., no special election. In 2004, the law changed to take that power from the Governor and also to require a special election. Between the time the seat became vacant and the time of the special election, the seat would remain vacant.

Kennedy has asked that the Governor have the power to fill the seat until the special election can be held.

...it was understandable that the Mass. legislature felt they had to take extraordinary measures to prevent the possibility of him creating further damage to the State in the event such an opportunity presented itself. Perhaps they could have included a "one time only" clause in the amendment like SCOTUS did in Bush v. Gore.

Pardon my ignorance, but as I live on the West Coast I didn't notice Romney until the 2008 primaries (of course it didn't take long before I didn't like him!). Would you mind explaining whatever shenanigans occurred that allowed him to slip into the governorship? Thank you :)

As a native of the Bay State, I assert that the MA Democratic Party is perhaps the worst in the union. Romney could easily have been stopped cold when he applied for candidacy, but the party has no fight left in it and rolled over quite easily.

Until gross inequality is remedied, however, such things are political window dressing. Here's to it.

fiscally conservative, but socially tolerant. It wasn't long before it became obvious that Massachusetts was no more than a platform upon which he planned to build his wingnut bona fides. He imagined he would be hailed as the republiCon that reformed the People's Republic of Mass. It was, in retrospect, a pretty transparent gambit judging from the support his primary bid garnered up here in New England.

You have my condolences. :(

I'm convinced he has no personal principals whatsoever. He's a vacant, soulless creature, and in some respects he scares me even more than some of those wingnuts who really believe the shit they spout.

and again for Governor in 2001 to 2002 as pro-choice, pro-gay rights, pro-gun control, secular, etc. He then did a 180 degree turn on all those issues. Meanwhile, he spent all of his four years in the Governor's office traveling around the country, getting himself known, positioning himself to run for President.

The other way that he ran under false pretenses was that he had been a resident of Utah before running for Governor of Massachusetts. Long story and not worth going into for purposes of this thread because that is not really what the thread is about.

I think the Legislature should make it clear that it intendes to amend the law from time to time, exactly as the Constitution of the United States contemplates.

It will bite us only if we stupidly allow it to.

We changed the rules under one governor and are now reversing them.

time for the special election anyway.]

Jerks.