NY Times, CNN, MSNBC----
The push for swiftly naming an interim successor to Senator Edward M. Kennedy intensified Wednesday in the wake of his death, with Gov. Deval Patrick coming out strongly in favor of the idea and other top state lawmakers indicating they were reluctant to leave the seat vacant for months.
Mr. Kennedy, concerned about the loss of a Democratic vote during the fevered effort to pass a national health care overhaul — his most cherished legislative goal — had asked state leaders in a letter last week to make such a change possible.
Wednesday, Democrats in Washington stepped up pressure on the governor to see Mr. Kennedy’s wish fulfilled, and state legislative leaders said they would immerse themselves in the issue after a mourning period for Mr. Kennedy.
Under current law, a special election could not take place until at least 145 days after a Senate seat opens, in this case, mid-January. Mr. Kennedy’s proposal would let Mr. Patrick, a Democrat, appoint a temporary replacement sooner.
The governor said he would sign a change in the law if the legislature approved it. He said it was important for Massachusetts to have two voices in the Senate as Congress prepares to vote on overhauling the health care system — contentious legislation whose passage may well require every Democratic vote.
“It’s a particularly timely request at a time when there are such profoundly important issues pending in the Congress,” Mr. Patrick told reporters outside the State House, adding that he had spoken with Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, earlier in the day about the importance of filling Mr. Kennedy’s seat. “I’m looking at the issues that are in front of the country right now and how important they are to all of us.”
Republicans have attacked Mr. Kennedy’s proposal as flagrantly partisan, and indeed, the state’s Democrats are in the awkward position of being asked to reverse their own 2004 vote to keep vacant Senate seats empty until a special election.
Until that year, Massachusetts law had called for the governor to appoint a temporary replacement if a Senate seat became vacant. But when Senator John Kerry, a Democrat, was running for president in 2004, the Democratically-controlled State Legislature wanted to deny the Republican governor at the time, Mitt Romney, the power to name a successor if Mr. Kerry won. The resulting law requires a special election 145 to 160 days after the vacancy occurs.
While state legislative leaders stopped short of endorsing Mr. Kennedy’s proposal, they said they were worried that leaving the seat empty for five months could hurt the state. “I think that has to be a concern,” Robert A. DeLeo, the speaker of the House of Representatives, said in a news conference here.
Mr. DeLeo and Therese Murray, the president of the State Senate, said a hearing on changing the law, originally planned for October, would now probably take place next month.
In the letter discussing his successor, Mr. Kennedy said any temporary appointee should offer an “explicit, personal commitment” not to run for the seat in the special election. Several supporters of the plan said Wednesday they thought such a guarantee would make it more palatable to Democratic legislators who were worried about backlash.
“I think a lot of people when they first heard about this were afraid it would be a handoff” to whomever Mr. Patrick appointed as a temporary replacement, said Representative Michael Moran, co-chairman of the legislature’s elections rules committee, which would shepherd through any change in the succession law.
Mr. Moran said he favored the change and hoped Democratic lawmakers who initially expressed opposition would, too.
“Ted Kennedy was one of the most impressive senators we’ve ever had,” he said, “and to have him write a letter just prior to his death saying this is something Massachusetts needs — how do you not take that seriously and give your position another look?”
One question, Mr. Moran and other lawmakers said, is whether it would be constitutional to prohibit a temporary successor from running in the special election.
As of Wednesday, only six lawmakers had signed a letter in which State Senator Michael O’Leary, whose district includes Mr. Kennedy’s hometown, Hyannis Port, called for the change. Mr. O’Leary acknowledged Wednesday that many of his colleagues were skeptical.
The legislature is not set to return until after Labor Day, and lawmakers said they would delay discussing the proposal until after Mr. Kennedy’s funeral on Saturday.
“I think after the senator’s services are over that probably the conversation will become louder,” Ms. Murray said. “I’m reserving my judgment in deference to the family, who really doesn’t want this in the paper right now. Our king is dead and nobody really wants to be discussing this right now.”
Philip W. Johnston, former head of the Massachusetts Democratic Party, who remains involved in state politics said, “I have a pretty strong feeling that they will do it.” Mr. Johnston added, “The Republicans will say, ‘Isn’t this terrible,’ but the Democrats have nothing to apologize for as long as the temporary appointee is not a candidate for the permanent seat.”
Several people, inside the family and beyond, have been discussed as possible candidates for Mr. Kennedy’s seat. His wife, confidante and policy adviser, Victoria Reggie Kennedy, has been the subject of speculation as a possible successor, but friends have said she is not interested.
Other relatives seen as possible heirs include former Representative Joseph P. Kennedy II, Mr. Kennedy’s nephew, who has expressed reluctance to return to politics but who has $2 million in leftover campaign money and has not ruled out a run.
Since leaving Congress in 1999, Joseph Kennedy has run the Citizens Energy Corporation, a nonprofit organization he founded years earlier to provide affordable heating oil to low-income families. While considered charismatic and a powerful speaker, he has faced criticism for accepting donated oil from the Venezuelan government. His reputation also suffered when his former wife published a book in 1997 saying he had verbally bullied her in his effort to get an annulment. But many Democrats say he would be a formidable contender.
Outside the family, a number of Massachusetts Democrats are considered possible successors, including United States Representatives Stephen F. Lynch and Michael E. Capuano; state Attorney General Martha Coakley; and former Representative Martin Meehan, who retired in 2007 to become chancellor of the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, but who has about $4.8 million in campaign cash.
“Much depends on whether a Kennedy will run,” Mr. Johnston said. “I don’t think there will be any discussion until after the funeral, but at that point everyone will make some decisions as to what will happen.”
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