Mass. May Have New Senator This Week
Massachusetts could have a new U.S. senator by the end of the week.
The state Senate is expected to debate a bill Tuesday that would allow the governor to appoint an interim replacement for the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the death of Edward Kennedy last month.
CBSNews.com Special Report: Ted Kennedy
Republican lawmakers delayed debate again Monday after first postponing action on Friday, but said they don't anticipate objecting again — paving the way for a Tuesday debate and vote. They concede backers of the bill likely have a narrow majority.
Senate President Therese Murray, a Democrat, also said she anticipated action on the bill on Tuesday.
"They're using all the tools at their disposal and they'll be out of tools tomorrow and we'll have a healthy debate," said Murray, who declined to say whether there were enough votes to pass it.
If the Senate passes the bill, it will require a final vote in both chambers Wednesday before heading to Gov. Deval Patrick. The House gave the bill initial approval last week on a 95-58 vote.
Patrick supports the measure and could name an appointment as soon as he signs the bill. The appointee would serve until voters pick a permanent replacement during a Jan. 19 special election.
Patrick said Friday that President Barack Obama had personally talked to him about changing the law, and that White House aides were pushing for him to gain the appointment power amid debate on the administration's health care overhaul — in part so Democrats can regain a filibuster-proof, 60-vote majority in the U.S. Senate.
Obama presidential counselor David Axelrod has also contacted Massachusetts officials and the Massachusetts branch of Obama's political arm, Organizing for America, has sent out e-mails advocating the change.
Republicans, vastly outnumbered in the Legislature, blamed the rush to change the law in part on pressure from the White House and national Democratic leaders like Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
Republicans called the move hypocritical, noting that in 2004, Democrats changed the law to block then-Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican, from naming a temporary replacement if Sen. John Kerry had won his presidential bid.
They said Democratic leaders in Washington could delay the health care vote until after the special election.
"It seems like it's a one-vote margin that they need and just to fool around and change the laws in Massachusetts to get an extra vote to be a rubber stamp, I think people can see through that," said Senate Republican leader Richard Tisei.
Kennedy had urged the change in law in a letter sent to lawmakers shortly before his death from brain cancer, saying the state shouldn't be left with just one senator until a special election.
Those said to be under consideration for an interim appointment include former Gov. Michael Dukakis, former Democratic National Committee Chairman Paul Kirk Jr.; former Massachusetts Senate President Robert Travaglini, former Kennedy staff chief Nick Littlefield, Harvard Law School Professor Charles Ogletree and former state Treasurer Shannon O'Brien.
The bill initially would have required the appointee be from the same party as the person who created the vacancy, a Democrat in the case of Kennedy's successor.
That requirement was stripped after critics in the House raised constitutional concerns and noted that more than half of voters in Massachusetts aren't enrolled in any party and would be barred from consideration.
Patrick has said he would extract from the appointee a promise not to be a candidate in the special election.
A WHDH-TV/Suffolk University poll found that 55 percent of Massachusetts voters support changing the law, with 41 percent opposed. The poll of 500 registered voters was conducted Sept. 12 through 15 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.