Massachusetts Governor Shouldn’t Appoint Interim Senator
Sep 1st, 2009 by nick
Although I’m a registered Democrat and would love to see a progressive replacement for Ted Kennedy in the senate as soon as possible, I feel obligated to comment on the current hypocrisy of Democrats in Massachusetts. The state legislature seems likely to change the state law to allow Democratic Governor Deval Patrick to appoint an interim Senator until a special election can be held. While the argument is valid that the appointment is, “the only way to make sure Massachusetts is fully represented until the voters of the state elect our next senator in January,” it ignores the history of the legislation in question. The current system was put in place by a Democratic-led state legislature in 2004 to prevent Republican Governor Mitt Romney from appointing an interim senator if John Kerry were to win the presidential election. Now, five years later, Democrats are reversing themselves, with the only obvious difference being the political party of the governor. I realize that it’s difficult for the politicians to restrain themselves when they have the power to implement this change. But I would have hoped that the election or appointment of senators is too important to be so crassly political.