Patrick to make announcement about special election for Kennedy Senate seat

"Governor Deval Patrick is scheduled to make an announcement this afternoon about special election to fill the US Senate seat left vacant by the death of Senator Edward M. Kennedy.

Patrick is scheduled to make the announcement in the press briefing room at the State House, according to his staff. No details were released about the substance of the announcement."

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/08/patrick_to_make.html

I hope he announces they're going to change the law so he can appoint someone soon!

I haven't heard anything about this on cable news today. I found this article on the freeper site of all places! I was skimming the site to see their latest fears and complaints about Obama and his admin.

Edited to reflect the fact that he can't announce he's going to appoint anyone since he CAN'T yet.

he can only begin the process to get a Special Election in place.

or so I thought. The pundits have been saying they thought the law would be changed and he'd be able to appoint someone in a matter of weeks.

And he cannot appoint somebody at this point. The law needs to be changed.

Wonder if he is considering running for the seat? Hopefully not.

soon. I just edited my OP. From the article: "State lawmakers are also still trying to weigh one of Kennedy's final wishes: He wanted the governor to have the authority to appoint an interim senator, who would serve until the election is held."

I guess this is what the announcement is likely to be about.

going to announce the date of the special election.

Deval Patrick has already endorsed the idea of an interim appointment. There is nothing else he can do about this.

and Senate for power (and yes, they are all Democrats).

I think that the press conference is more for Patrick to be able to answer question. He is going to have a hip replacement in the next few days and will be out of the public eye for about one month. My guess is he is trying to get good media reviews before that, given his popularity is pretty low these days (unfairly, IMHO).

himself?

to announce the date of a special election, he wouldn't be holding this press briefing!

I might guess the governor was going to move up the date of the special election, so that a new senator can be elected now, rather than appoint a placeholder and then have an election 5 months from now.

Maybe Patrick thinks that would be a better move than to reverse a law that was changed specifically to stop his dog abusing predecessor?

appointment so MA is represented before the special election takes place January 19th.

interim.

I'm opposed to states not having Representation.