Debate begins on Kennedy succession

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By Steve LeBlanc ASSOCIATED PRESS

BOSTON -- Massachusetts lawmakers debated on a bill Thursday that would allow Gov. Deval Patrick to name an interim appointment to the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the death of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy last month.

Massachusetts House Speaker Robert DeLeo said he believed there were enough votes to pass the bill in the 160-member House. He said the change in law is needed to ensure that Massachusetts continues to be represented by two senators until voters can choose a replacement during a Jan. 19 special election.

"I just want to make sure that Massachusetts has a say . . . that Massachusetts has their voice heard on health care, on the environment, on clean energy," said Mr. DeLeo, a Democrat.

Mr. Patrick, a Democrat and ally of President Obama, also supports the change.

The bill would require the appointee be from the same party as the person who created the vacancy, a Democrat in the case of Mr. Kennedy's successor.

Republicans, who number just 16 in the House, opposed the bill.

They point out that Democrats changed the succession law in 2004 to create a special election and block then-Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican, from naming a temporary replacement if Sen. John Kerry had won his presidential bid.

To change the law now that there is a Democrat in the governor's office smacks of hypocrisy, they said.

"When Senator Kennedy passed away, we started the law that was on the books, and we shouldn't be changing the law midstream," said state House Republican leader Rep. Bradley H. Jones Jr. "Everything else is ancillary and extraneous to that."

State Rep. Michael Moran, chairman of the House Committee on Election Laws, said lawmakers shouldn't be handcuffed by past votes if they are not in the best interest of the state.