Senator John F. Kerry’s nomination to become secretary of state sets off a flood of political activity in Massachusetts, as numerous politicians consider a run for his seat.
State law requires Governor Deval Patrick to appoint a temporary successor, once Kerry is confirmed by the Senate, as is expected to happen several weeks from now. An election would then be held between 145 days and 160 days after that.
Comments
If one thing can come out of this current electoral mania, let it be that Massachusetts voters prove that the do not need a carpetbagger with a famous name to come into the state to find a detour to a life-long career with no heavy lifting in the U.S. Senate. That carpetbagger would be Teddy Kennedy, Jr., whose reported Senate seat wishes had a chance of being granted by Connecticut residents just this past November. But he chose not to run, probably because he thought he would get his efforts stifled. Now there are some persons with dreams of Senate staffer jobs trying to stir the pot to assure that Teddy, Jr. might succeed his late Daddy for another 40 or so years. Kennedy clan members have tried to use New York State as their own private springboard into the Senate, Bobby Kennedy being the most successful, Caroline not so. Sen Scott Brown, very correctly, said the Senate seat he won for a very brief term, was "the people's seat", not a "Kennedy seat". The Democratic Party in Massachusetts is so bent on setting itself up as the ONLY party in this state that it will stoop to any level to accomplish that mission. It is time that the voters let the state's delegation to the U.S. House cannibalize each other in a brief, but savage campaign. Hopefully, Sen. Brown will be the GOP opponent and will run a more successful run at the voters this time than he did this past November.