why is there a special election anyway. I thought they were going to change the law to allow the governor to pick the senator
They took the governor's appointment power away in 2004 when Romney (R) was governor and they thought that Kerry (D) would win the presidency, creating a vacancy. They wanted to prevent Romney from installing a Republican senator.
Instead of the governor appointing a senator, they changed the law to call for a special election to fill the vacancy. When the "law of unintended consequences" kicked in after Ted Kennedy died, they realized that Massachusetts would be short one Senator for the duration of 120 days, the minimum before the election could be held. They needed this 60th vote once Al Franken was seated. The Democrats were at 59, then Franken pushed them to 60, then Kennedy's passing dropped them to 59 again.
So, the MA legislature again manipulated the law and now allow the governor to appoint an "interim" Senator until the special election can be held, thus restoring the second vote in the Senate. Furthermore, the law says that the appointed Senator must be of the same party as the Senator who caused the vacancy.
That's where we are now.
-PJ
They did and he did. sd