BOSTON — Massachusetts lawmakers on Wednesday granted the governor the power to appoint an interim replacement for the late Sen. Edward Kennedy.
Gov. Deval Patrick will announce his appointment today at a news conference at the Statehouse. He said late Wednesday that he would send a letter to the secretary of state to declare an emergency to allow him to override a Wednesday legislative vote that defeated his administration's effort to make the bill take effect immediately. Normally, legislation faces a 90-day waiting period.
The Democratic governor refused to discuss potentialappointees, though a top aide confirmed earlier that Kennedy's sons had lobbied for the appointment of former Democratic National Committee chairman Paul G. Kirk Jr.
Kirk, 71 and a Boston attorney, was close friends with the senator. He and his wife, Gail, live on Cape Cod, and he was among the few regular visitors allowed at Kennedy's Hyannis Port home before he succumbed to brain cancer Aug. 25.
A special election to fill the seat is scheduled for Jan. 19.
Democrats revoked the governor's power to fill Senate vacancies in 2004, fearing that then-Gov. Mitt Romney might appoint a fellow Republican if Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., won his campaign for the presidency. Instead, they created a five-month special election campaign and beat back GOP efforts both that year and in 2006 to bridge any such vacancy with a temporary senatorial appointment.
But on Aug. 20, Kennedy sent letters to Patrick, Senate President Therese Murray and House Speaker Robert DeLeo urging them to amend the succession law to allow an interim replacement. President Barack Obama is pushing a national health-care overhaul, andKennedy's death has deprived Democrats of their filibusterproof 60-vote majority in the Senate.
Patrick later said the senator had made a "reasonable request," given the health-care debate and coming Senate votes on climate change and economic-recovery legislation.
Information for this article was contributed by Steve LeBlanc and Jay Lindsay of The Associated Press and by Tom Moroney of Bloomberg News.
Front Section, Pages 2 on 09/24/2009