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Kennedy's seat: Appointment possible

by Mark Silva and updated

That last public wish of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy may come true -- in part, at least.

Before he died, the senator-for-nearly-five-decades asked that Massachusetts change its recently revised laws for replacing a U.S. senator. The Democrats are down one now in the Senate, with the president's health-care initiatve, near and dear to the late senator, on the table.

The state already had removed the appointive power from then-Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican, when Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts posed the potential for a vacancy back home with his bid for the White House in 2004. The state now requires a special election, but that apparently won't come until January.

A state legislative committee will hold a hearing next week on a bill to allow Democatic Gov. Deval Patrick to appoint a temporary replacement for Kennedy while a special election is held to fill his seat, the Boston Globe reports this afternoon -- "a signal that Beacon Hill is moving to accommodate Kennedy's request that Massachusetts maintain two voices in the Senate.''

The state House and Senate chairmen of the Joint Committee on Election Laws announced today they have moved the hearing date from early October to Sept. 9. The bill could go to the floor of both the state House and Senate within days after the hearing.

''One of the senator's last public acts was a request that the Legislature explore ways to amend state law so the Commonwealth will not lose a voice in the United States Senate pending the filling of the seat with a special election,'' said state Sen. Thomas P. Kennedy (no relation to the late senator), Senate chairman of election laws committee.

Patrick today set the date of the special election, Jan. 19.

"In the meantime, without the modest change that Sen. Kennedy himself proposed, Massachusetts will not be adequately represented in the U.S. Senate,'' Patrick said at a news conference this afternoon. He supports the special election, he said, but will work with the state legislature to secure an interim appointment before the election.

"On the merits, the proposal seems to me reasonable and wise,'' said Patrick, suggesting that he can't speak for the changes made in the past but sees an urgency in filling the vacancy today. "I don't think, by any means, it is a certainty it will happen,'' he allowed, nor does he need the personal "head-ache'' of making an appointment, but it seems like a "nice, and elegant'' solution for the vacancy.

(One may be to able to appoint a senator, one couldn't: Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, above, at the memorial service for Sen. Edward Kennedy at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, by Michael Dwyer / . Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, below, unveiling his official portrait during a ceremony in January, by Elise Amendola / )

It is his intention, Patrick said, to seek a personal assurance from any interim appointee that he or she will not seek the seat in the special election -- though the state cannot constitutionally require that by law.

For causes such as health care and other issues in which the state has an interest, the governor said, the state needs two senators.

"Our interests,'' he said, speak "in favor of having a voice.''

Patrick said he has not picked a potential interim appointee, and had not spoken with President Barack Obama about this. Patrick said that Kennedy's widow, Vicki, is not interested in the appointment -- nor will the governor, seeking reelection, seek the Senate seat in the January special election: "I will not seek the position.''