Tags : martha coakley, massachusetts, massachusetts senate, special election for ted kennedy's senate seat, Ted Kennedy, ted kennedy's senate seat
MA Attorney General Becomes First Candidate For Kennedy’s Seat
Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley on Tuesday requested nomination papers for the special election for the Senate seat of Ted Kennedy, becoming the first among potential candidates to enter the race.
The 56-year-old Coakley, a Democrat, has not officially announced her candidacy, and will have until Oct. 20 to submit her nomination papers to local Registrars of Voters or Election Commissioners for the certification of signatures. She need 10,000 certified signatures to qualify for the primary scheduled on Dec. 8. The special election is on Jan. 19, 2010.
The election will be the first one for an open Senate seat in Massachusetts since Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) won his first term in 1984. Kennedy, who succumbed to cancer and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery over the weekend, had occupied his seat since winning a 1961 special election to fill the vacancy from his brother John’s ascension to the White House.
Much anticipation surrounds whether the Kennedys will seek to keep the seat in their family. Pundits are focusing on 56-year-old former Rep. Joseph Kennedy II, son of Robert Kennedy, as the most qualified candidate for the special election.
Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), who has represented the 7th district of Massachusetts since 1976, is said to be considering a run.
Vicki Kennedy, the late senator’s wife, has expressed no interest in either running or being appointed despite receiving what ostensibly is an endorsement from Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), who partnered with Kennedy in passing landmark bills and who has called himself Kennedy’s top Republican friend.
There is also the issue of an interim replacement for the seat, a request Kennedy made in his final days. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has expressed support for the proposal, and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick on Monday appealed to state lawmakers to consider it.
Announcing the date he had chosen for the special election, the Governor made clear he “wholly support the special election and the Democratic process to fill the remaining two years of Sen. Kennedy’s term.” But he also warned that the state will not be fully represented in the Senate in the five months before the election.
Calling Kennedy’s request a “modest change” in state law and the issues before Congress “historic,” the Governor appealed, “The proposal to me seems reasonable and wise. I hope the members of the legislature, regardless of their party affiliation, will see that too and consider utmost the interests of our citizens and being represented in Washington continuously.”
Apart from Vicki Kennedy, former Gov. Michael Dukakis, the 1988 Democratic presidential nominee, has been mentioned as an ideal interim replacement.
A week before he passed away, Kennedy had written state lawmakers to ask that state law be amended so the governor could appoint someone to his vacant seat in the months before an election. The power of the governor to make such appointments was taken away in 2004, when state Democrats passed an amendment to keep then-Gov. Mitt Romney from appointing a Republican for the seat of Kerry, who eventually lost the presidential election and remained in the Senate.
Republicans oppose Kennedy’s request, which state lawmakers plan to take up when they return from recess next week.
Jennifer Nassour, chairperson of the Massachusetts GOP has said, “The integrity of a representative republic is bigger than any person or legacy. We must honor Senator Kennedy’s service by allowing those who sent him to the Senate to decide the next generation of leaders for Massachusetts… rather than leave any succession to the whims of a small group of politicians.”
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