Mass. House Approves Sen. Kennedy Succession Bill

By Steve Brown
Sep 17, 2009, 5:14 AM
2 Comments

The bill to give Gov. Deval Patrick the ability to appoint an interim U.S. Senator, until a permanent replacement is elected in January 2010, moves to the state Senate. The House voted 95-58 Thursday night to approve the measure. All 16 Republicans in the House voted against the bill, along with 42 Democrats.

Supporters of the measure, including Democratic Rep. Michael Moran of Brighton, argued Massachusetts is at a great disadvantage with only one senator in Washington.

“If we don’t do that (appoint a senator), there’s a lot of money at stake in appropriation bills,” Moran said. “There’s a lot of issues and votes that are going to need to be made for this state, so we have our two voices,” he added.

The U.S. Senate seat has been vacant since August 25, when Sen. Edward M. Kennedy succumbed to brain cancer.

After the vote, Republican leader Bradley Jones said he was not surprised by the outcome.

“I think it’s going to be another in a series of bad votes that members have taken that weren’t necessary that were wrong and irresponsible,” Jones said. “I think hopefully there will be a price to be paid, time will tell.”

East Bridgewater Rep. Allen McCarthy was one of the 42 Democrats to break with House leadership and vote against the bill.

“The way we were doing it was not appropriate, and I thought the timing would be better when we’re not dealing with a vacancy in the seat,” McCarthy said.

House members did defy leadership by approving an amendment to the bill stripping language that would have required the governor’s appointee be from the same party as the senator being replaced — in this case a Democrat.

Supporters of that amendment successfully argued the restriction could violate the U.S. Constitution, and would likely prompt a court challenge to the temporary appointment and could keep the appointee from assuming the post.

The bill’s future in the Senate is not certain. Senate President Therese Murray has indicated there are enough votes for passage.

Senate Republicans have vowed to use parliamentary rules to delay the matter, although the maximum delay would only be a few days.

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Nancy

I am a long time supporter of Evelyn Murphy and I know (personally) she is available to step into the position of Interim Senate seat . She has the knowledge of the key votes in the US Senate, ie. health care reform and climate change, given her experience in state government and afterward. She doesn’t come with any hidden agenda ,certainly no interest in any public office.
Steven Rapalyea

The move to appoint an interim U.S. senator is the height of political cynicism. After changing the law in 2004 to prevent a Republican governor from appointing a Republican to replace John Kerry in the senate, the heavily Democratic legislature wants to pave the way to reversing the law now that a Republican is no longer governor. The simple fact is Massachusetts has not had two senators in Washington for nearly a year and it’s a specious argument to suggest that we suddenly need one for the next three months.