Posted on 08/22/2009 6:40:13 PM PDT by Libloather
Legislators start to push for Kennedy succession plan
By State House News Service
Sat Aug 22, 2009, 03:02 PM EDT
Boston, Mass. - Amidst a new round of partisan sniping on Beacon Hill, poll results released Friday showed majority support among Massachusetts voters for a plan outlined by ailing Sen. Edward Kennedy to allow Gov. Deval Patrick to appoint a temporary U.S. senator in the event of a vacancy in the office.
Fifty-two percent of likely Bay State voters say they agree with Kennedy’s request to change state law and allow the governor to name an interim senator until a special election is held to elect a permanent successor, according to a Rasmussen poll. Forty percent oppose the change, according to the telephone survey of 500 likely voters.
Along party lines, 72 percent of Democrats favor the plan; 64 percent of Republicans and 51 percent of unaffiliated voters oppose the plan. A 2004 state law, passed to prevent then-Gov. Mitt Romney from possibly naming a replacement to then-Democratic Party presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry, requires that a special election be held within roughly five months of a Senate seat becoming vacant.
According to the poll, 66 percent of voters support a special election; 27 percent support the governor having the power to directly appoint someone to the seat. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percent.
Legislative leaders and Patrick have been cool to Kennedy’s request, but a pair of lawmakers, Sen. Robert O’Leary (D-Barnstable) and Rep. Robert Koczera (D-New Bedford) are trying to generate support for it, with the latter asking Patrick to consider calling lawmakers back to Beacon Hill to act on the matter.
O’Leary said he hoped to apply a “blanket prohibition” against the interim senator seeking to retain the office. “We’re circulating a letter among the Cape delegation and then we’re going to circulate it Monday among our Senate colleagues,” O’Leary said.
Aides to Senate President Therese Murray, who has been publicly noncommittal, “didn’t have an opinion one way or the other” during discussions with his office, O’Leary told the News Service.
O’Leary said he had spoken with Koczera, who is pushing legislation that would allow for the appointment after candidates qualify for the ballot. O’Leary, whose Cape Cod district includes Kennedy’s Hyannis Port home, said he preferred a ban on the interim senator seeking the office, and said, if that effort proved constitutionally tricky, “That would have to be worked out.”
The Barnstable Democrat said, “I think the intent is to try and do something and do it early in September.”
O’Leary weighed in with an endorsement of former Gov. Michael Dukakis as “a perfect choice. He’d be my nominee.”
Koczera has also ramped up his lobbying on behalf of his bill, sending a letter to Patrick Thursday and reaching out to legislative leaders to highlight a bill he filed months ago, but which was thrust into the spotlight Thursday by news that Kennedy wants a rewrite of the succession law.
The appointee would personally commit to not seeking the seat in a special election, under Kennedy’s plan. Koczera’s proposal (H 656) is similar but seeks to protect against the appointee running for the seat in the special election by allowing the temporary senator to be named only after candidates have been qualified for the ballot.
In his letter to Patrick, Koczera said he believed his bill reflects Kennedy’s position. “I suggest you consider this matter and in discussion with legislative leaders consider calling the Legislature into session to act upon the matter,” Koczera wrote.
In an interview, he acknowledged his plan might leave the seat vacant for two months, but said that would be preferable to a five-month vacancy and a necessary safeguard to prevent an appointee from getting a leg up on competitors via incumbency. “My feeling was that five months was a long time. If there’s business before the Congress Massachusetts should have a voice and a vote,” Koczera said. “I didn’t file it expecting these circumstances to arise.”
Koczera said his bill, filed in January, isn’t scheduled for a hearing until October 7 but added that he’s willing to expedite its review.
President Barack Obama is scheduled to vacation on Martha’s Vineyard beginning Sunday. Kennedy aides have sought to quell speculation that the president would visit with his ailing political ally.
Republican lawmakers on Thursday ripped Kennedy’s plan, labeling it a political power play and noting Democrats rejected a similar proposal five years ago.
While the GOP alleged hypocrisy behind an effort to restore appointment powers now that there is a Democrat in the Corner Office, Koczera said it was Republicans who are being hypocritical, noting it was not long ago that they were defending the gubernatorial appointment power held by Romney and fighting the Democrat-controlled effort to force a special election as the method of filling Senate vacancies.
“It’s being politicized a lot, especially by the Republican Party,” Koczera said. “At one time they were in favor of an interim. It’s like newfound religion. They choose to be opposed to any kind of an appointment.”
House Minority Leader Bradley Jones on Friday pounced on Koczera’s criticism.
Noting Koczera in 2004 voted against a Republican-sponsored interim appointee amendment and took to the House floor to push for the proposal’s defeat, Jones reiterated his claim that Democrats were contemplating politically-based public policy changes.
“A hypocrite right out of the gate – Bob Hypocrite Koczera,” Jones said in a News Service interview. Jones added, “I haven’t said that I’m against the idea of an interim appointment” and said he was open to a change that applied only after the 2010 elections.
Jones reiterated his beef that Democrats appeared to be engineering policy based on political circumstances rather than the state’s best interests, saying the plan wouldn’t be under discussion if Kennedy weren’t ill or if Republican Kerry Healey had beaten Patrick in the 2006 gubernatorial election.
Jones said, “If we had not changed the law in 2004 at all, this conversation wouldn’t be happening right now.”
He said Democrats on Beacon Hill were responsible for a potential “crisis” should the Senate seat become vacant. The GOP-sponsored interim appointee amendment failed in 2004, with 44 voting in favor and 104 against. The 44 votes in favor were split evenly among Democrats and Republicans.
So far, Koczera said, he hasn’t received much of a response to his letter. He said a couple of lawmakers he talked to at the State House Thursday were noncommittal. “The bill’s been filed,” he said. “It’s going to be heard and voted upon in some fashion.”
Koczera said all timely filed bills are voted upon in committee and that he hoped his bill would receive a favorable report. He said he had received no assurances of a floor vote on his bill in the House. Koczera added he is working with O'Leary to push for a hearing in September rather than October.
"I'm definitely in favor of wanting to get early action,” he said.
They should just save themselves a lot of trouble and pass a law saying that they’ll do whatever Teddy sez. They can even appoint a State Psychic to communicate with Teddy from the Great Beyond.
Barney Frank, John Kerry, Ted “the Swimmer” Kennedy-— of course the state is stupid.
Very, very stupid in MA.
I would be so embarassed to be associated with that idiot state.
Let me make it a bit more clear: What a bunch of dumbasses!
Why can’t he just die.....it is amazing to me that he’s the asswipe that got the law changed so Mitt couldn’t appt a replacement if Horseface was elected in 2004 and now wants to change it back so a Kennedy clone can be put in...his wife? Caroline? someone related to the Kennedys?
Anyone watching FOX?
Geraldo: There’s no one to speak for Presidents plan Pelosi & Reid not doing it. Representatives are hiding. The GOP are cleaning their clocks at town hall meetings. :)
Can we vote to remove Massatwoshits from the Union?
“It’s alright. I’m just used to being the driver. Be careful going over that bridge, okay?”
Did you read any of the comments on Boston.com that spoke about this outrageous idea. There was at least 14 to 30 pages on each article that told Teddy boy that no way this is going to happen and that he should rot a not so nice place.
Out of all of that, there might have been one nice comment. No one that I know in Massachusetts wants this to happen and they have quite a racket going here. I believe they rig everything. What a corrupt state and I unfortunately live in it.
I was not part of this poll and they are lying through their teeth.
there is no such thing as an interum senator. The pubs should make it clear that they will fillabuster the appointment.
The only thing the Baaahston state has to offer is ugly-ass, bottom-feeding crustaceans.
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...oh, they have lobster, too.
What did a dog ever do to you?
Yes, they are stupid in MA! They’ve elected the Hero of Chappaquiddick over and over again since 1962! They’ve elected Bawney Fag and John Kerry! Yes, there is something wrong with people in Massachusetts.
If teddy knows he is done, for the better good, why does he not resign?
Michael Graham, a New England conservative talk show host, chalks it up to "battered voter syndrome."
In lay terms, this is a reference to any person who, because of constant and severe political violence usually involving economic and constitutional abuse by government, becomes depressed and unable to take any independent action that would allow him or her to escape the abuse. The condition explains why abused people often do not seek assistance from others, fight their abuser, or leave the abusive situation. Sufferers have low self-esteem, and often believe that the abuse is their fault. Such persons usually refuse to press criminal charges against their abusers, and refuse all offers of help, often becoming aggressive or abusive to others who attempt to offer assistance. Often sufferers will even seek out the government for comfort shortly after an incident of abuse.
You don’t really buy that do you? It’s well written psycho-babble. The entire state can’t fall into this category; maybe some do but not all. It’s stupidity.......but if I can just add, perhaps the people there are so hacked off and not stupid and we’re not hearing that. And that’s why Dead Ted (sorry) wants the Senator appointed instead of a special election.
Didn’t he get it changed during Romney’s tenure........from an appointment system to a special election and now he wants it changed back? That guy has probably done more damage to this Nation than all the others combined.
Looks like one of those inflatable dolls people use to travel in the high capacity lanes.
” O’Leary weighed in with an endorsement of former Gov. Michael Dukakis as “a perfect choice.” “
Dukakis?
Michael Dukakis?
Not THE Michael Dukakis?
Du-KA-kis?
MIKEY FREAKIN’ DUKAKIS????????
ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR EVER LOVIN’ MIND??????????????
Jeez, I gotta get out of here before they quarantine the place.
Seriously, is Ted photoshopped here? Look at the weird position of the seatbelt, not to mention the facial expression. It could almost be a cardboard cutout strapped in the car.
It is about time someone said it. I have been reading all the comments and everyone seems to think the poll is on the up and up. I call BS. How any FReeper can believe any poll is truthful is beyond me. I would be if they actually put this to a vote the people would not allow this to happen. They are well aware the rules were just changed so a Republican(RINO)governor couldn't appoint someone, now they want it back the other way. I don't know why the legislature doesn't just make two rules, one for Republicans and one for Democrats, who ever happens to be governor at the time. Democrats get to appoint, Republicans have to put it to a vote.
This hypocritical POS, Kennedy, should have resigned last year when he first discovered he had incurable brain cancer. He hangs on for fear he might not have power right to the end.
I doubt if he is the one saying they should appoint someone anyway, I doubt his brain is even functioning beyond the basic life sustaining functions.
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