"Codifying of Senate vacancy law urged" by Matt Viser, Globe Staff | October 2, 2009
State Senator Stanley Rosenberg said yesterday he will file legislation that would make a rare change to the state’s constitution to codify the new method for filling US Senate vacancies in Massachusetts.
This is what they are spending their time on?
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Yup, he's mine.
The Legislature has changed election laws twice in the last five years, most recently last week, to allow the governor to appoint an interim US senator until a special election is held. The changes have been controversial, and Rosenberg wants to prevent further changes by writing the current law into the Massachusetts Constitution. “This was an agonizing process, because it took two tries, and a lot of people felt uneasy about this,’’ Rosenberg, a Democrat of Northampton, said in an interview. “Why don’t we end this chapter by codifying this in the constitution and it will be a permanent fix?’’
Why did you HYPOCRITICAL PUKES CHANGE IT in the fir.... right!
To change the state’s constitution, the Legislature would have to approve the measure in two consecutive sessions. To be adopted, voters would then have to approve it on the next ballot. The earliest the proposal could go before voters would be November 2012.
I'm starting to wonder whether these damn elections are nothing but worthless exercises to make us feel good.
Prior to 2004, state law allowed the governor to make an appointment to a Senate seat in the event of a vacancy. The appointee, under those rules, was to serve out the remainder of the term and then have the choice of running for reelection. But Democrats changed the law in 2004, because they did not want Governor Mitt Romney to have a chance to appoint a Republican to the Senate in the event that Senator John F. Kerry won the presidency.
And then they SCREAM BIPARTISANSHIP at us!!!!
The law provided for a special election, to be held about five months after the vacancy, but did not allow for anyone to hold the seat between the time of the vacancy and the special election.
Only when Senator Edward M. Kennedy requested, shortly before his death, that the law be changed did Democrats change it to allow for an interim appointment to his seat.
What, after that fat f*** got them to CHANGE IT BEFORE? It's a terrible thing to say, but now I'm glad he's gone.
Republicans, who account for a historically small minority in the Legislature, called the Democrats hypocritical for only being willing to make the change now that there is a Democrat in the corner office.
Yeah, that is me. But WE ARE GROWING!
Last week, Governor Deval Patrick appointed Paul G. Kirk Jr., a longtime Kennedy confidant and former national chairman of the Democratic Party, to be the interim senator.
“I say, let’s strike while the iron is hot,’’ Rosenberg said. “The discomfort some people feel in the public is really fresh. Let’s do it.’’
But not until after 2012!
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So if Kerry croaks and we have a Republican governor, you Dems gonna change it back again?
